


The Moon is Bright and I Am Here

by rindomness



Series: The (Mis)Adventures of Sam Reese [5]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Asexual Character, Autistic Character, Finals, Found Family, Gen, Insomnia, Paranoia, University of Gliese, Werewolves, group projects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 23,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27271975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rindomness/pseuds/rindomness
Summary: It's been almost three months since Sam Reese first met Dipper, also known as the demon Alcor the Dreambender, and finals week is coming up fast. Silver is trying to maintain top-of-the-class grades, there have been rumors that there's been a rogue werewolf spotted near Pineview, and Dipper has been getting more and more summons lately due to the holidays. Needless to say, Sam is stressed. Hopefully, nothing happens to make life more complicated.Hah, since when has she been that lucky?
Relationships: Sam Reese & Alcor the Dreambender, Sam Reese & Silver Wills, Silver Wills & Alcor the Dreambender
Series: The (Mis)Adventures of Sam Reese [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1985777
Comments: 9
Kudos: 72





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> More Sam content, hooray!  
> Quick warning for people being jerks and also a little bit of unintended ableism.

Sam was bouncing her pen against the desk when the announcement was made.

“Alright, everybody! We are officially in finals time!” The grin on Sam’s professor’s face was contrasted by the immediate chorus of muttered cursing and groaning. “Which means that it’s  _ also _ project time!”

The groaning got louder, and Sam glanced at Silver. Project time meant group work in Preternatural Studies, and that meant that Silver might need help.

“Oh, shush, it’s not that bad! You’ll work in groups of three on your last big assignment for this class. You’ll be making a presentation on one of the preternatural groups we discussed in class this semester, and part of your research for that project will be an annotated bibliography, along with transcripts of your interviews, which you will turn in to me with your physical project.

“The project can be anything you like, so feel free to be creative with it! Our last day of class will be something of a gallery, though, so give it some thought!”

Sam looked to where Dipper usually sat. He wasn’t here, and she was pretty sure the official reason would be ‘didn’t feel well’. She got a feeling it had more to do with Alcor business, though. She looked back to Silver, who was looking at the packet that was being handed out. Sam accepted one from the TA walking around the room and flipped through it.

“Hey, Silver-” Sam started, only to be cut off by Sazi and Devon, two of the demonology students Silver hung out with sometimes, come up.

“Silver, hey! We were wondering if you wanted to be in a group?”

Sam watched as Silver’s face lit up, and she grinned. “Yeah! What did you want to do it on?”

“We were thinking demons - we covered them briefly but since we’re all in the demonology class together, that wouldn’t be too hard.”

“What about interviews? It says we have to conduct some kind of empirical research.”

_ Why don’t you just talk to Alcor, you know, the demon who practically lives in our dorm with us? _ Sam thought.

“We’ll figure it out. We’ve got two weeks, and if worse comes to worst, we can always go talk to the demonology professors.”

“I mean... that would probably work, yeah. Let’s do it!”

Sam watched as her friend got up and left her alone at the table to write their names on the board for the topic.

What about the group work part? Sam knew Sazi and Devon were good students, yeah, but doing the work wasn’t usually Silver’s problem. It was the time management, and the organization, and Sam usually helped them with that. That’s why they asked Sam in the past to group with them, and this was the final project for the class!

Sam stared for another moment before looking back to her packet. What else was free?

“Hey,” someone said behind her, and she turned. There was a guy there with a University of Gliese sweatshirt and a beanie, and a girl with long, black hair and clothes that looked expensive. “We need a third person. Want to join us?”

Sam paused, looking back to Silver.

Whatever. If Silver didn’t want her help, whatever.

“Sure,” she said. “What topic did you want to do?”

“We were thinking, like, werewolves or something. Because they’re super scary and dangerous.”

Sam bit back the comment that rose to her throat.

“Sure, we can do werewolves. I know that Pineview has a preternatural resource center-”

“Cool. Hey, what’s your name?”

Sam could feel her annoyance spiking.

“Sam. It’s Sam.”

“Oh, cool. I’m Eric. This is my girlfriend, Sasha.”

Sasha waved, smiling. Sam kept her expression blank. She didn’t know how they became a couple and she honestly didn’t care.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she ground out. “I’m going to go write our names on the board.”

Sam got up to do just that, walking up to the front of the room and pushing her hair out of her face. She needed to get it cut, and she could see some of the brown growing back in. She better put redyeing on the list, too. Maybe she could color it something like yellow next time.

She wrote her group’s names down on the list next to ‘Werewolves’ and walked back up to her seat, where Eric and Sasha had already taken spots around it. She sat down and pulled out her laptop, starting up a shared document.

“What are your guys’ e-mails so I can add-”

Eric cut her off with a shrug.

“Hey, why don’t you do the interviews? Because you’re so excited about the resource place in town and stuff. I can do other research and maybe Sasha could make the art thing?”

“If you guys wanted to do research together I’m really good at paint-”

“No offense, Sammy, but I’m kind of an  _ expert. _ ” Sasha cut her off.

Sam felt her eye start to twitch.

“I never meant to imply you  _ weren’t _ ,” Sam started, deciding to let the name bit slide for now. “But the art piece needs to be informational and-”

“That’s what the interviews and shit are for, Sal,” Eric said.

“It’s Sam,” she ground out. “It has to be informational because we’re using it to present our research-”

“Dude, chill. It’s not like this class  _ matters _ or anything.”

Sam had a lot that she wanted to say.

“And, like, no offense, Sammy, but I’ve seen your ‘art’ in other classes. It’s not that good.”

Sam felt heat rise to her cheeks, and she had to restrain herself from throttling Sasha right then and there.

“My name is  _ Sam. _ Are you going to do research or not, Eric, because if you are, I need your e-mail so that I can add you to the doc-”

“I’ll just type it up myself. Sheesh, are you always this stuck-up?  _ You _ must be fun at parties.”

When could she leave this class, again?

She looked over to where Silver was sitting, laughing with Sazi and Devon. The three of them had pushed some tables together and seemed to be having fun. Sam frowned.

She liked Sazi and Devon, of course, but Silver had never just ditched her without telling her. What did they have that she didn’t, anyway? What was that all about? Was she really just... no fun?

“Yeah, hey, Sam, why don’t you go talk to some of the werewolves at your resource center? I’m sure they’d like your company.”

Sam really,  _ really _ wanted to throttle these two.

“I’ll do that,” she said, voice forcibly pleasant. “It’s been nice meeting you.”

As soon as she could get out of that room, Sam did, passing Silver without a word and rushing to leave with hot tears building in her eyes.

Stars, she hated group projects.

* * *

Sam had made her way to the quiet spot by the woods by the time Silver came looking for her.

“Hey,” Silver said, sitting on the opposite bench. “You were crying earlier, are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. My group is just... stupid.” She laughed, but it sounded hollow to her ears. Silver frowned.

“They’re stupid? How so?”

“Oh, it’s just ‘let’s do werewolves because they’re scary!’ which is... not nice to the werewolves, let me say, and ‘oh, yeah, since you like them you can go talk to them’ and they seem kinda pro-nat and like they only asked me to join their group because I looked easy to push around or something.”

“Oh- oh, no, Sam, I’m sorry, I forgot-”

“It’s fine,” Sam said. “Your other friends asked first. I’ll be fine. I’ll just... have to do it all myself.”

“Sam, I’m sorry-”

“You can stop apologizing, okay? I get it. You want to hang out with them more, I get it! It’s just one group project and you see me all the time.”  _ It’s not like we always do these together or anything. _

“Sam-”

“Why don’t you go study for one of your tests?”

Silver frowned. “If you don’t want me around just tell me-”

“Okay, then, fine, Silver! I don’t want you around right now! I’m having a rough time and you’re not helping!”

Silver looked like they’d been punched.

“You could have asked me to be in a group if that’s what you’re pissed about.”

“Well, even if I had, it’s not like you would have wanted to!”

“Sam.”

“But it’s fine! It’s not like you’ve been up for hours-”

“Sam!”

“-complaining and crying about all sorts of things in groups-”

“Sam, listen to me!”

“-asking me to help with them only to turn-”

“Sam Reese, would you  _ listen to me _ instead of yelling at me?!”

“What do you want from me, Silver?!”

“I want you to back off!”

“Back off from what, trying to help-”

“Stop babying me! I’m an adult! I can make my own decisions!”

“Do that, then!”

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay! Are we going to play the ‘Silver’s a helpless kid who needs help with everything’ game, then? In that case, I’m just going to go.”

“Then leave, Silver, since you like your new friends so much more-”

Silver slammed the gate out of the spot, leaving a deafening silence behind, filled only by the gurgling of the fountain.

* * *

Sam hadn’t seen Dipper all day, so when he showed up out of thin air in the otherwise-empty car, Sam almost drove the car into a tree. She got it back under control quickly enough, though.

“What the fuck, dude?”

Dipper at least had the decency to look ashamed of himself.

“I didn’t realize you were driving.”

“No, clearly not. Where have you been?”

“Summons.”

“Yeah, summons doesn’t usually take all day-”

“It wasn’t a good one and I needed to calm myself down.”

Sam was quiet.

“Got it.”

They drove in silence for a while, Sam very aware of the glances Dipper kept sending her. He looked human, but if he had just shown up in a crowded place, that probably wouldn’t have saved him anything, anyway.

“So why are you all purple?”

Sam frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your aura. It’s really, really purple. Like, angry purple, more red than blue-”

“Okay, I get it. You can see my emotions. Just had a rough day in Preternatural Studies.”

“Oh, damn, was today group assignments?”

“Yup.” She popped the ‘p’, looking straight ahead at the empty road down to Pineview. “I was going down to the resource center to see if there was anyone there I could interview.”

“Is Silver not coming?”

“Ask Silver.”

“Sam-”

“It’s fine. They’re just vaguely pro-nat idiots, and I can do the whole thing myself.”

“Sam, that’s not- Sam look out for the GUARDRAIL-”

Sam swerved at the last second to avoid slamming the car into the guardrail in question.

“If you’re just going to ask me about the stupid group thing, don’t bother. I can handle it. I did it in high school and I can do it in college. Sasha’s getting fucking glitter whether she likes it or not.”

“Sam, I’ve-”

Dipper went quiet, and it took her a moment to realize it was because he wasn’t in the car anymore.

She barely avoided running off the road on the way back to campus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we're starting this off on kind of an intense note. Sorry for that.  
> Yeah, hope you enjoyed! Should be back at it soon but I couldn't wait to get this chapter out so here you are!


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper would very much appreciate it if people would stop summoning him so that he can get caught up on what he missed between Sam and Silver.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for blood I guess? Also whatever Sam's doing.
> 
> Enjoy!

Dipper didn’t get time to finish telling Sam he had another summons before it pulled him out of the car and into the circle. He held back a groan. He hadn’t gotten to check in on her all day and something had happened. Now, he probably wouldn’t get to anytime soon, because holidays always brought people trying to end the world, or poorly-thought-out gift-shopping. Seriously, don’t summon a demon for your holiday shopping, when is that  _ ever _ a good idea?

Not to mention the Circle of the Dreamer’s Star, which, while he appreciated that they weren’t going around murdering people in his name, also would NOT let up. Right now, all he really wanted to do was to be with his Mizar.  _ Especially _ since there was at least one person giving her a hard time, and it wasn’t him.

This wasn’t the Circle, thankfully. That would have taken hours to deal with. They had managed to pull him away, though, whether he wanted to see what they wanted or not.

It wouldn’t be two wack-job cults in one day, would it?

“Wh͜͟ǫ͜͏ ̸̶͘d͏̴͘a͡r͜͝e̶͘͟s̴̨͠ ̵̴̕s̴͠u͢͝m͏m͞o͏n̸̕ ͞A̡lc̸͜or̡ ̢͘͠t͜͝ḩ̕ę͝ Dr̢e̶̴am̢b̨e̵͘͠nd͘͡e͏r̨?͝” He stood straight up, wings mostly folded, arms crossed, floating about half a foot off the ground.

Typical basement, typical robes, lots of blood, and what looked to be a deer carcass on the concrete floor.

So, no encore of this morning’s problem, then. That was relieving.

“Oh, great Alcor, the Dreambender, the Reality Warper-”

“W̢͟h̴̴a̢t̡͡ i̵͝s i̧̕͜t͢ w̷̕͢i̡͘ţh̴ y͠ou͢͝ ̶̕g̨u̵̷͘y̷͜͠s̵̴̕ ̴̢̕a̛nḑ̴ ̶͡ţi̛͞t̢le͟͝ş?͢͏ S̕̕er͢͠i̧͟͠ouşl̶y̸͡͏.̛͢ ̵̶͜H͞urr̴y̨ ̵i̴t ̡u̢p͜,͏̡͢ ͏I̶̡ ̛͡d͘͏o̡͟n͘'̸t̢͞ ҉͜h̢̕a͏͝v̶͢e̷̛ ͠͏͢a̡̛̛l͞l̸̵ d͏a̛y.̢̛͡” He clapped for emphasis, causing the leader of the group to stop for a moment in surprise. They rallied, looking to a set of notecards in their hands.

“We are gathered here to make the request of power, power with which to rule, with which to gain obedience-”

Dipper yawned. The leader stared at him, wide-eyed, for a moment.

“P҉͝o͠we̛͝r̴̡ ̢̕t͟o ̧r̕͞ư̷l̴e̛̛.̛ ͡G͝o̷͝t̛͟͢ ̷͠i̷̴͝t҉.̴ ̢͠͠W̴͡ha͜҉t̵̸ ̛͢d̷͘͘o͟͟͝ ̸̛y̵o̸͡u͘͝ ͞͠h͘͜a̡̨͢v͏͡e̴͝ ͜f̡͠͝o҉r͡ me̶͡?̛”

“We offer you this deer carcass, along with our continued worship-”

“Ye̕ah҉̨,͢ ̶t̶̨h͟e d̕e̛e͝r̛ c̸҉҉a̷͞r̛c̴as̴͡s͘͟͞ ̸͝i̵͜͢s ͠f̶͞͝i͝ņe͜͞. ͡P̢͟o̧͢w͜ę̛r ̛t̶̴o ̶̢r̢̡͏u͠l͞e̕͏͢ ̕i͠n҉ ex̷҉̕c͡h͏̢a͟͟ņ͟g͟e̸̡ ̨͘f͜o̧r̢͟ ̸̶t̷͜h̢e ̢d͡ee̴r̢ ̡c̛a҉̧r̵͏͏c͏̡a̵ş͘s̷̸, ̶͡t҉͜h̸̡͘e͝͏n?̸̧”

“Yes, great-”

“Y̸̷͠o̧̧͞u̢͟ g̴o̕͢t ą͞ ̶̵d̴̵e͞a͟͜l҉͠.̶̕”

He stuck out his hand, blue flames erupting. The leader shook it after a moment’s pause, and Dipper grinned, something dangerous. The carcass disappeared, going somewhere in the Mindscape for Dipper to enjoy later.

“Ha̷̵͟v̡e̴ ͞f̨u͟͢͞n̢ r̛u҉̴̸li̡n̨g!”

He pulled his hand back and bowed, before disappearing. 

Around the circle, the cultists exchanged a look. It was dead-silent in the room, before they burst into cheers. They had done it! They had the power they had always wanted! The cheering quickly turned to confused yelling, though, as they shrunk down towards the ground.

Power to rule. They could rule over the mice in the basement, then. Not that the mice would be very useful to rule over. Dipper, of course, missed the whole thing, because he was focused on going right back to Sam.

Dipper appeared in the dorm room, Sam typing away at her laptop. She didn’t look up as he came in, wings fluttering slightly as he leaned back in the air.

“Sorry about that,” he said, and Sam jumped. “Summons pulled me out.”

“Oh,” Sam said, eyes going back to the screen. “It’s alright.”

“So what happened with group projects?”

“Oh, I just ended up being in a group with a couple of idiots.”

“Do you want me to do something about those idiots?”

Sam shook her head. “Don’t bother. I’m just planning on doing the project myself.”

“What happened to Silver?”

Sam didn’t respond, but he watched the wave of sickly yellow-green bloom across the purple of her aura.

“We’re not in a group.”

Dipper frowned. “Okay... so, you’re  _ clearly _ mad about that, and you won’t tell me what the people in your group  _ did, _ or why you’re mad at Silver-”

“Can we just not do this tonight?” Her typing got harder, and Dipper saw blue leaking into her aura. “It’s just not a good time.”

Dipper had a couple of options. He could just drop it and let them figure it out themselves. He could keep pressing, and risk Sam being pissed off at him, too. He could ask Silver what had happened, but Silver might not know what went down with Sam’s group. He could also take a peek into his wide array of knowledge and see if anything came up, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to access much useful there.

Of all the days to not be able to human well enough to go to class, why did drama and fighting have to start today? 

“Okay, I’ll talk to Silver later. What happened with your group?”

Sam sighed. “It’s not a big deal. They’re just kinda rude.”

“So let me at least help if you’re gonna be doing it yourself, okay? Since I’m not in a group. I can probably get away with being in yours if we talk to the professor on Wednesday.”

Sam looked like she was about to raise a protest, before she sighed. “You know what, sure. You can help, unless the professor puts you into a different group on Wednesday.”

“Let’s take a look, then,” Dipper floated over to sit in the air beside Sam.

The dorm room opened, and Silver came in. Sam looked up for a moment, before looking back to her laptop. Dipper watched them as they set down their bag and looked between Dipper and Sam.

“Um... Sam?”

Sam looked up from her laptop.

“What is it, Silver?”

“I just... I wanted to apologize for getting mad and yelling at you earlier.”

Sam didn’t respond, and Dipper frowned, looking between the two of them. Silver’s colors were mostly blues and pale pinks, and Sam’s was still an angry purple shot through with red.

“We’re not starting this again.”

“Sam, please, can we at least talk about it-”

“No, because you clearly know what you want. I’m just gonna fuck it up, right?”

Dipper frowned. What had happened earlier? Why wouldn’t Sam talk to him about it? He didn’t want to invade her or Silver’s mental privacy to find out unless it got dangerous, but this was hurting. He could feel anger and what he would have to label as betrayal coming off the soul link.

“What? Sam, no! I don’t- I just-” Silver was getting stuck. Sam frowned.

“You don’t want my help. I get that! What else is there to talk about?”

“There’s a lot we need to talk about, Sam!”

“I’m going for a walk.”

Sam slammed shut the laptop and stood up, leaving the dorm.

“Sam-”

Sam slammed the door shut, leaving Dipper and Silver alone in the empty room. After a while, Dipper spoke up.

“So, uh, what was that all about?”

Silver sighed.

“I decided to work with a different group for this project and she’s all pissy about me not needing or wanting her anymore,” Silver explained. “I’m just trying to, I don’t know, make new friends? Practice independent organization skills? Practice working with other people? I don’t know.”

“Oh,” Dipper said. “I should probably check on her, then, huh?”

“Give her time. She’ll cool down. This isn’t exactly the first fight we’ve had. She’s great and all, but... it’s kind of hard to explain the social and organizational stuff to someone who doesn’t deal with it.” They smiled, weakly.

“Alright.”

“I’ll call her in a couple hours if she’s not back to make sure she’s okay,” Silver said. “Meanwhile, could you help me out with the project we’re fighting on, since we have to do interviews and stuff?”

“Why are you asking me?”

Silver flushed a little.

“Our group picked ‘demons’ and decided to solve the ‘how do you talk to demons for research’ problem later, but since you’re here and all...”

Dipper nodded.

“Sure. That sounds okay. But we might need to make a deal for time so that a different summons doesn’t-”

Silver held up a plastic box filled with pieces of candy.

“How long will this get me?”

Dipper looked.

“I’d say something like... an hour? Hour and a half?”

“That should be enough. So, this for answering interview questions for an hour?”

“No super-personal questions, though. I get veto power.”

“Of course.”

“Then you’ve got yourself a deal, Mx. Wills,” Dipper said, holding out a hand. Silver shook it, and he settled in to answer their questions for their project as he opened the box.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little short, I guess? Next one should be a bit longer and then after that we've got a pretty long chapter.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam goes on a walk to calm down after Silver tries to apologize again. Things happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW FOR THE FOLLOWING:  
> \- Blood  
> \- Violence  
> \- Demon Dipper  
> Enjoy!
> 
> Happy Actual Halloween!

“There’s a lot we need to talk about, Sam!”

Sam began to stand up. “I’m going for a walk.”

She closed her laptop, ending up slamming it shut. She walked towards the door, shrugging on a hoodie.

“Sam-”

She slammed the door shut and nearly ran down the hall to the stairwell. She took the stairs to the ground level two at a time, a skill she had learned through much trial and error back home. She slowed down as she pushed open the doors out of the building, taking a deep breath of the cool night air. The light post which illuminated the parking lot hummed, and Sam let the door shut behind her as she walked out across campus.

It was late, which made her walking about a little weird, but she just couldn’t handle being in the dorm room right now. She didn’t want to talk to Silver at the moment, and she didn’t particularly want to try and explain her issues with Eric and Sasha to Dipper, either. She expected to give it a day at most before she was calm enough to go over it.

She would calm down, eventually. She always did. It wasn’t like she didn’t have fights with Silver before. It just... hurt, a little, that Silver seemed to be having an easier time making new friends than Sam. Sure, Sam had a number of positive acquaintances, and she  _ liked _ Sazi and Devon, of course. She just wasn’t particularly close with anyone who wasn’t Silver or Dipper.

That was the root of the problem, wasn’t it? She didn’t have many other friends.

She didn’t have  _ any _ other friends.

She supposed she should blame her parents for that, really. They had tried, really, they had. The only problem with the way that they had tried to help her make friends was that the friends they tried to help her make were always people that  _ they _ had picked.

She stared down at the Reese Technologies logo on the hoodie and frowned. She had moved out here to get away from that, to get away from  _ them, _ but they were still fucking with her life, anyway. It wasn’t Silver’s fault that Sam didn’t have the best track record trying to make new friends on her own. It was no one’s fault beside her parents’, really. Sam was just... not exactly used to having to try to make  _ friends _ , rather than just being friendly. 

She had become friends with Silver over a shared fandom server, and then they had started talking more and more in other contexts, and now they were living together. Silver was really the only person Sam had gotten a say in whether she wanted to be friends with them or not. The fact that Silver’s parents were both preternatural and queer wouldn’t have flown with her parents, no matter what.

Sam sighed, pushing open the gate to the quiet spot that her feet had taken her to. She needed a break from all of this. The fountain gurgled, a constant that Sam was honestly happy to have.

The wind rustled through the pine trees making up the forest beyond, and Sam sat on the cold, stone bench. She needed to breathe and relax before she went back to the dorm. Otherwise, she’d probably explode at someone who didn’t deserve that.

She sat, eyes shut, taking deep breaths, feeling the cold breeze push past her.

She must have passed out at some point, she realized. There was something off when she was aware of what was going on around her, which was probably what had woken her up. As her head cleared a bit more, she realized that what had tipped her off was the lack of noise.

She sat up, mentally preparing to call Silver, if they were still with Dipper. She reached for her phone in her pocket and bit back a curse. She must have left it by her laptop when she had stormed out of the room earlier. Maybe she could outrun whatever had made the natural nighttime sounds go quiet.

A low growl came from the woods beyond, and Sam froze. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise, and she looked out into the woods. What the fuck was that? It sounded big, and dangerous, and her brain was immediately shooting off  _ something out there wants to eat you _ feelings into her body.

Her eyes were locked on the woods, and the noise cut off. She backed toward the gate back to campus, mind flailing for the nearest likely-to-be-unlocked door. Had she passed out? How long had she passed out for? Had Silver or Dipper tried to check on her and she didn’t notice because her phone was in the room and she was asleep?

Her hand reached out for the gate latch when a blur of motion came out of the woods and right towards her.

A large, furry object slammed into the gate, shattering the wood it was made of and causing Sam to have to jump to the side to avoid it. She cursed, now, and backed out onto the bench.

She quickly realized it wouldn’t do much, since the thing that had come barreling out of the woods towards her was  _ giant. _ The more she looked, the more she realized that it really resembled an enormous black wolf.

The wolf stood up and shook itself off, turning piercing amber eyes on Sam, and she felt all of the animal instincts in her brain go on alert mode.

Shit.

She didn’t have time to look further as the wolf lunged at her again, and she had to dive out of the way again, hitting her shoulder on the cobbled ground.  _ Shit, _ that hurt.

She felt something sharp hit her leg, but she didn’t have time to consider it. She was up and running towards the gate as soon as she could, barely sparing a glance for the giant animal behind her.

She didn’t reach the gate, the wolf blocking off the exit, growling at her, teeth bared. Those were really big teeth and the only impression they gave Sam, panicked and running on adrenaline, was  _ shit, this thing wants to eat me _ .

She backed into the fountain, vaguely aware that there was definitely blood soaking through her jeans. They were probably ruined, but that was honestly at the bottom of Sam’s list of priorities right now.

There was a flurry of movement in the air as something dark came down, and it took Sam a moment to make out the golden lines and to realize it was Dipper.

For a moment, the wolf paused to stare at him, before all hell broke loose.

“Ge͔̘̫̦̜͕ͬ͛ͪ̑̉̚t̲̩̲͒̇ ̜͙̹̹͚̋̾̓̔a͇̗̞̟̫̙̔͛͌̆͗͑ͨw̱̑a̷̿̈̒ͫ͂y̲͓̋ͦ̐̿ͥ ̴̘̭̟̹ͦͦ̄ͣf̨͖͔̉ͫͦͬ̓͌ȓ̳͇͊o̳͕͙̪͚ͥ͞m̺͇͍͇̘̼̄͘ ͗ͧ̍M͇̤͎̐͆̇̐͂͐̾i̵͔͉̞̺̣͖z̯͉̟̯̟ͩͦͬ̑̈ͯ͛ā̵̘̻̟̂̔͗̆r̬̼̭͑͗!̸”

Alcor - Sam knew that this was Dipper but there was something about the brickwork that she couldn’t link to Dipper, the relative idiot who stole her french fries at lunch - dove at the wolf.

The wolf, rationally, tried to evade the angry demon who was currently pursuing it with a vengeance.

There was a blaze of electric-blue flame, and then there was no longer a wolf, the smell of burnt fur and flesh in the air. Alcor stayed in the air, mostly motionless, before more human elements began to drift back in and he floated back to the ground, looking to Sam.

Sam, for her part, was having a little trouble meeting his eyes, focused on the spot where, just moments before, a wolf taller than her had been standing.

Shit. Shit.  _ Shit. _

“What did you  _ do? _ ” Were the first words out of her mouth, shaky and panicked. She was gripping the fountain and the back of her hoodie was soaked by this point, but honestly, she couldn’t care less.

“I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to- Sam, I-”

“Alcor, what  _ was- _ ”

“Werewolf. My guess is that he went rogue, since it’s not a full moon and there have been rumors...”

Sam could vaguely remember someone mentioning something about that at the preternatural resource center when she had visited earlier. She had waved it off at the time, since she was looking more for an interview than for gossip, but she really should have paid more attention from the looks of things.

Physical feeling started leaking back into her awareness, such as how the back of her calf was stinging and wet. Her shoulder was throbbing where it had hit the ground, and where her hoodie had been soaked through was cold from the water and the outside temperature.

She was hit, more than anything, by the realization that if Dipper hadn’t shown up when he had, she probably wouldn’t be alive right now to complain about any of that.

She gripped the fountain a little harder, tearing her eyes away from the spot on the ground that was still smoking slightly to look at Dipper.

He was more or less in his usual appearance, eyes trained at the ground.

“I... shit. Shit.” She took a deep breath. “How’d you know I was in trouble?”

“I could feel it over the soul link-”

“Soul link?”

Dipper winced.

“Um... I... kind of... sort of... own your soul.”

Sam was silent for a moment.

“ _ What. _ ”

“I- it’s a long story-”

“Why didn’t you tell me that sooner? That’s- fuck, that’s a big-”

“I didn’t want you to freak out-”

“I’m freaking out now! What, you’ve owned my soul this  _ whole time?! _ ”

“Um... yes?”

“Dipper, what the  _ fuck- _ ” Shit. That was not good, was it? She sat down on the bench opposite from where Dipper was standing, holding her shoulder.

“Sam, are you hurt-”

“Dipper, just- just lay off, for a second, I’m not sure you noticed but I’m  _ kind of _ in shock right now?”

“Right- right. Sorry, I’ll just-”

“No- no, don’t- don’t go.” She sighed. “Look, I’m not... I’m not  _ happy _ about the whole I-own-your-soul-and-didn’t-tell-you thing, but it’s not like I can ask for it back, right?”

Dipper was quiet. “No... not... not really. Sam, I’m sorry-”

“You know what, no, you’re explaining how the  _ fuck _ that happened later but right now that’s not-” She looked at her calf. “Fuck, okay, that’s- that’s bad, that’s not good.”

The fabric of her jeans was completely cut through, and blood had soaked the fabric around the tear. She rolled up the pant leg and blood continued to roll down her skin, soaking into her socks and the backs of her sneakers.

“Shit.”

“I can- I can fix that-”

“What do you want for that, because I don’t feel like explaining what I was doing out here to the hospital when they ask. I don’t want to feed into werewolf paranoia.”

Dipper nodded. “That’s a good idea, uh... do you have any candy in your pockets or something, or you could specify from the drawer what I can take-”

Sam dug around in her pocket and pulled out a few packets of Skittles she had stuck in there a week ago. “Will this do it?”

Dipper looked between the candy and the cut, and was quiet for a moment. “It... it should. It’ll... take care of things like infection and I can close it up but it’ll be one heck of a scar-”

“I don’t care about a scar, Dipper. You can keep it from getting worse and close it up for now with this?”

“Yeah.” He held out a hand, and Sam shook it, blue flames lighting up for a few seconds before they extinguished. Sam shook out her hand from the demonic tingling that ran up her arm as the skittles packets disappeared and the gash in her leg closed up, an angry pink line where the cut had been.

“Awesome. Great. Now we’ve just got to get back to the dorm and hope Silver isn’t going to murder me for this, too.”

“You left your phone at the room so they’re probably a little worried. They were trying to call you when I...”

“Followed your soul bond thing here,” Sam finished, and Dipper nodded. Sam sighed.

“We’re talking about that later. I’m not... super comfortable with not having known about that particular detail until now.”

“Sam, I’m-”

“Save it. It’s unavoidable at this point and there’s not exactly anything I can do about it so just... explain to me later. When things calm down a little. Whole story.”

“Right.”

“Let’s... let’s just get back to the room for now.”

Dipper nodded.

“Do you want me to blip us there?”

Sam was about to say no, before she looked to where the werewolf had been.

“...Sure.”

They blipped out of the spot, the only signs of what had happened being the destroyed gate and the darkened spot on the ground.

The fountain gurgled, like it always had and would continue to do for a while yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry  
> For the intensity  
> This is about to get interesting  
> Hope you enjoyed!


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alcor had to go help Sam, and Silver's left to worry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm really excited about this but some special warnings apply here. Content warnings for:  
> \- sensory sensitivity  
> \- going nonverbal  
> \- blood  
> (if there's more please let me know, I'm doing my best here)  
> Enjoy!

“Something’s wrong.”

Silver looked up from their list to Alcor, sitting cross-legged in the air. They frowned.

“What do you mean?”

It was the end of the time Silver had bought in their interview deal with him. He was frowning, seemingly looking through the wall behind them.

“I don’t know, but something’s wrong with Sam.”

Silver watched as his frown deepened, and they found themself frowning, too.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“I should go find out.”

“I’ll call her.”

Alcor nodded, still looking past them. “Good idea.”

Silver dug out their phone and hit Sam’s number, holding it to their ear.

“Put it on speaker.”

Silver nodded, hitting the speakerphone button.

It dialed, and it was quiet in the room for a moment.

Across the room, next to Sam’s laptop, the Hat in Space main theme began to play. Silver’s phone was waiting for someone to pick up on the other end. Alcor looked to them, and Silver was looking to the other side of the room.

“She- she wouldn’t have just  _ left _ her phone here, would she?”

“I don’t think she’d do it on purpose, if that’s what you’re asking.” Alcor floated over to the other side and picked up Sam’s phone, the screen lighting up with Silver’s incoming call. “But she did, anyway.”

“Dammit, Sam,” Silver muttered, and Alcor declined the call. Silver’s phone stopped buzzing in their hand. “Okay, so what’s-”

“Something’s really wrong,” Alcor interrupted. Silver watched as some of his more human elements began to fall away, black-and-gold brickwork showing underneath. “I need to-”

“Maybe she’s just-”

“S̨he͠'̸s ͟i͟n͢ ̢dange̶r.”

Silver stopped at the sound of Alcor’s voice. The reverb was new. They hadn’t heard that in months, since before they knew he was going as Tyrone at school. The sound buzzed just behind their eyes, the same way that the kitchen lights back home had before they had told their moms the sound was a problem.

“Okay- okay. Just- how are you-”

“I n̢ee̛d to̡ ͞go҉ ḩelp ҉M͏i̸̶̢z̷a҉҉r,” Alcor turned gold-on-black eyes on them, his skin - or, at least, the image of his skin - fading away in favor of black and gold brickwork.

There was something so inhumanly dangerous about it that Silver shut up. This was the Alcor that had wrecked landmasses and showed up on the news discussing the mass murder of cultists. This was the Alcor that meant business, and wouldn’t listen to a mortal person such as themself if they told him to calm down. There was no calming this down, and Silver was immediately reminded that this was a demon. This was a demon who had attached himself to their best friend, simply because Sam was Mizar.

“...Right,” they found their voice again, though it was small. They were tapping the bed,  _ tap tap tap tap- _ “I’ll just... wait here.” Their words were heavy in their throat, too big for the space, too sharp.

Alcor’s eyes didn’t leave theirs until he was gone, the space he filled immediately empty before Silver could even blink. The front of their head felt light, lighter than it should normally feel, and the back of their brain was buzzing. Their throat felt like it had closed up. The light was too bright and they could hear the electricity, an unsteady buzzing sound that left their chest tingling.

_Tap tap tap tap tap tap-_ they got up and paced the room, dimming the light, _one two three four,_ _turn._ _One two three four,_ _turn_. Repeat, repeat, repeat, keep on repeating, until the buzzing dulled down and they could hear again.

_ One two three four _ . Sam would be fine.  _ Turn. _

_ One two three four. _ Alcor was on it, he knew what he was doing.  _ Turn. _

_ One two three four _ . If nothing else, he had to be more qualified than they were.  _ Turn. _

_ One two three four. _ Deep breath in.  _ Turn. _

_ One two three four. _ Deep breath out.  _ Turn _ .

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

They lost track of time, really, hands in front of their chest, fingers tapping out a pattern on their collarbone when Alcor and Sam returned.

“Silver?”

“Mmmmm?” They turned to Alcor and Sam.

“Shit- Silver-”

They opened their mouth to ask Sam what happened. The words got stuck in their throat and their chest and their stomach, and instead they waved, humming a little, and Sam frowned. Oh.

“Silver-”

Silver’s eyes wandered down to Sam’s leg, and they bit their lip. There was a  _ lot  _ of blood on their jeans. What had happened while she was out?

Alcor had said something about her being in danger, hadn’t he?

_ Tap, tap tap, tap tap tap. _ Their fingers tapped out against their sides, and they didn’t notice as Sam’s frown deepened.

“Hey, why don’t we go over what happened in the morning? We’re probably all exhausted.”

Silver paused, and nodded. That made sense. They’d get the story in the morning. Sam was here, and she wasn’t imminently dying. That was good.

“Yeah, that... that sounds good.” Sam added after another moment’s pause. “You’ve got some things to explain, too.”

Silver saw Alcor wince.

“Yeah. I do. And I will, I just- I’ll see you two in the morning.”

“Wait, you’re going?”

“Summons, I’ll be back soon. I should take this one, though.”

Silver nodded.  _ See you in the morning.  _ They waved, and Alcor disappeared from the room.

It was just Sam and Silver, now. Silver still wanted to talk to her about what happened earlier and to apologize. They still wanted to have that conversation. Watching Sam make her way to her desk, though, gave Silver the impression that now was not a good time to try and have that conversation.

They were hit with a stab of guilt at that thought. Sam had just been attacked, from the looks of things, and their first thought was trying to decide when to bring up their argument from earlier? What kind of friend did that make them?

Sam sat down at her desk, staring at her phone.

“Guess I did leave it here.”

Silver sat down at their own desk, turning the chair to look at Sam. Sam shrugged, opening her laptop.

The dorm was quiet, aside from the quiet  _ click-click-click-tap-clack _ of Sam’s typing. It was a bit until Silver spoke up, words finally coming up to communicate the whirlwind of thoughts in their brain.

“We tried to call you when Alcor first started freaking out,” they explained. Their voice sounded scratchy, the claws of the words digging into their throat. Sam looked at them.

“Yeah, I saw... wait, he was freaking out here?”

Silver nodded. “Yeah. It... it was weird, because he just... kind of froze and started talking about how something was wrong with you.” Their voice was still quiet and a little raspy, getting stuck in their throat occasionally. It was there, though, and it was getting a little stronger.

“Oh. It... that would make sense.”

“What... happened?”

Sam shrugged. “Alcor could probably answer it better than I could.”

“You were... there, though?”

“Doesn’t mean I have any idea what happened.”

Silver frowned. This happened a lot with Sam, they knew, and just because it bothered them a little didn’t mean it was going to stop.

“...Right.”

The room fell back into relative silence. Silver heard someone on the floor below them burst into laughter, and they clenched their fists.

The light was a little too bright, and they knew it was because they were still worried about Sam. They could still see the bloodstain on her jeans, and they could pick up the smell a little, too.

It didn’t bother them all that much, but they could see it getting more bothersome if things kept building up.

_ Tap, tap tap, tap, tap tap tap _ . Their foot bounced against the floor, their shoe tapping against the hard carpet. Their eyes wandered to the ceiling and started tracing lines from the texturing there.

Five minutes passed, then ten, then fifteen. Silver had spaced out, thinking of the shapes on the ceiling, and how the dragon they had identified there was doing. The dragon’s story was reaching a climax in Silver’s mind when Sam spoke up again, snapping them slowly out of their thoughts.

“I’m gonna go to bed. You can stay up if you want, not sure when Alcor’s gonna get back from his summons.”

Silver nodded. They should probably sleep, they had to meet up with Sazi and Devon to work on the project tomorrow. That was another thing they needed to talk to Sam about.

But later. That was lower on the priorities list.

Some time later, after they had gone through their nighttime routine, they turned off the lights in the room and lay down to sleep.

Someone on the floor above them was banging around, and down the hall Silver could hear loud laughter. They stared at the dark ceiling, waiting for the noises to at least get quieter. Someone was walking down the hall and talking loudly.

Silver reached for their headphones and turned on their quiet music. It filled their ears, and the sounds of other people moving and talking around them in other parts of the building faded out.

They shut their eyes and waited to fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Silver and I hope you all enjoy them just as much as I do.  
> Anyway, yeah! More coming up soon!


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day after the werewolf attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recurring warning for paranoia from this point onward.

Sam was sitting with Eric and Sasha at a table outside. They were under an overhang from the library, and Sam had her laptop out. They were meeting up to talk about the werewolf project, but the pair of them seemed more interested in feeding each other M&Ms than on doing research. Sam resisted the urge to groan.

“Eric, did you get anywhere on the research yesterday?” Sam asked, looking at him. Eric shrugged.

“I mean, it can wait. We have two weeks to do this, right?”

Sam had to try very, very hard to not smack him.

“It’s a good idea to get ahead since we have an art segment that we have to make, too.”

He waved her off. “No one’s actually going to care about it. It’s a gen-ed class for the preternatural studies people. I bet the teacher’s just there to fulfill her own quota or whatever.”

Sam’s eye twitched.

She was saved from having to throttle Eric by Dipper dropping into the seat next to her. He had a University of Gliese sweatshirt on, and his general Tyrone disguise up and running.

“Sorry I was late, what’s up?”

Eric and Sasha paused their weird couple activity to stare at him.

“Uh, what’s he doing here?”

“He’s helping me with interviews. Tyrone knows a few people in the community from his hometown-”

“Oh, cool, I guess. We’ve got enough people, though, I mean...”

“You haven’t even started researching, Eric.”

“I already told you, we’ve got time. Was that all you wanted to do here?”

“It’s a _group project meeting_ so yeah, that was kind of the point. Do you have anything better to do?”

“I mean, yeah. There’s a new Wings of Dreaming game out, and-”

“You know what? Sure. Sure! Go do that. Tyrone and I can work on this, since you apparently don’t care.”

“Also, Wings of Dreaming? Seriously?” Dipper said next to her. “If you’re going to waste Sam’s time, you could at least play a worthwhile game.”

“Wings of Dreaming is the coolest current shooter/romantic-”

“Demon video game. Sure. Good luck getting any of the demons in that game to actually legitimately date you.”

“Alcor’s kinda hot, though, you gotta admit,” Sasha cut in. Dipper looked like he was about to throw up, and Sam had to hold back laughter, leaning closer to her computer screen.

“You do know demons don’t... _date_ people, right? If they do it’s because they want something from you. There’s not really that kind of emotional connection there.”

“I mean, with Alcor, we’ve got stuff from the twenty-first century that says otherwise... you know, like, Twin Souls? What about Mizar, then?”

Sam glanced to Dipper. His eye was twitching, and she could see small rivets where his fingers were digging into the table. She elbowed him, and he glanced down, dropping his hands to the bench.

Eric and Sasha, predictably, missed the whole thing.

“Twin Souls is badly written and based off of nothing except someone’s twisted idea of what a good relationship is like. Besides, Mizar isn’t even-”

“Tyrone has some choice words about Twin Souls,” Sam cut in, before he could go on a rant about how Mizar was his _sister,_ dammit, with two random people.

Eric shrugged.

“I mean, it’s not like he’s not still _cute_ in Wings of Dreaming,” Sasha defended. “Doesn’t matter if he wouldn’t actually date someone.”

“That doesn’t- that’s not even- can we just get back to the damn project?” Sam cut in.

“I mean, I guess. What did you get to, anyway, Sam? Weren’t you the one all keyed up to go talk to the werewolves?”

“I asked and I’m waiting for Celice to send me contact information for interested people-”

“So nothing, like the rest of us?”

“That’s not-”

“I’m getting a call,” Dipper whispered to Sam. “Don’t know how long it’ll take.”

Sam nodded. “Alright. Get back as soon as you can, though.”

“That’s the plan. Might need to bring back some of the old tricks if this keeps getting worse.” At a louder volume, he said, “I’ve got to take something, I’ll be back soon though.” He stood up, and walked around the corner of the building.

“He’s not helpful either, huh? Hey, wasn’t he absent when groups were assigned?”

“Emergency. Moving on-”

“Hey, what kind of emergencies does a guy like that have?”

“That’s really none of your business-”

“You get to know, though? What, are you a thing or something?”

“We’re doing the project,” Sam said, the urge to stab him growing stronger. “My relationship with Tyrone is none of your business and never will be. Now, can we _please_ start working on this project?”

Eric gave a dramatic sigh, and Sasha glanced up from her phone.

“Sure, if you’re gonna be a buzzkill about it.”

Sam really, _really_ wanted to throttle him right now.

* * *

Dipper had gotten stuck with a Circle summons and didn’t get back until over an hour later. The table outside the library where Sam had been sitting with her group was empty, but a quick check revealed that at least Sam had gone inside.

He wasn’t very surprised to find that Eric was a Robbie reincarnation. He hadn’t run across one of him for a while, and he wished it had been a bit longer, all things considered. It had been much nicer meeting Ford’s current reincarnation. Silver was a good person, and he was happy that Sam had someone like them in her corner. He’d be lying if some part of him wasn’t amused that Silver’s big focus this lifetime was him, too. He could almost feel like their roles when Dipper was still alive had swapped.

He shook himself out of his musings as he walked through the library, pulling up a chair beside Sam.

“Sorry, took a while.”

Sam nodded. “It’s alright. I gave up with my group and I’m doing the research myself.”

Dipper winced. “Yeah, I see what you meant yesterday.”

“They’re just- impossible!” There was a string of typing, and Sam frowned. She didn’t say anything, though.

Dipper leaned over to look at her screen. There was a Wikipedia article pulled op on the laptop. Dipper was honestly surprised Wikipedia had last as long as it had, considering the multiple battles over its credibility, but wasn’t disappointed. The article was on werewolves, no surprise there, but he frowned.

“Hey, I know that we’ve gone through waves of trust in Wikipedia over the past few centuries, but right now wouldn’t the prof get upset about citing it?”

“I was using it for sources,” Sam explained. “This was weird, though.”

She pointed, and Dipper’s eyes went to what she was pointing to.

This was a section on turning, perhaps a couple of short paragraphs in total.

“What exactly am I looking for, Sam?”

“This part.” Her finger underlined a sentence, and Dipper pushed her hand out of the way so that he could read it. _‘While a werewolf usually has to be intending to turn someone in order to do so, there is a small chance that it can happen unintentionally.’_

“Yeah, it’s something like two percent, Sam.”

Sam was still frowning at the screen. “...Right.”

“What, are you worried about last night?”

Sam was quiet for a bit.

“No, like you said, it’s too small to really worry about.” She scrolled past, going to the references section of the article, and Dipper frowned.

Something was bothering her about that, and he was pretty sure he knew what it was.

“So where are we starting?”

“I’m talking to someone at the preternatural resource center. Her name is Celice and she’s pretty chill. For now, I’m doing basic research on what werewolves _are._ ”

“Neat. What do you want me to do?”

“Compile sources so we can check them later.”

“Got it.”

The two of them worked quietly, Dipper occasionally fending off a weak summons with the answering machine.

He was still worried about Sam, though. Something about that accidental turning rate had bothered her, and she wasn’t telling him why.

* * *

Silver sat at a table at the Sweet Tea Cafe on campus with Sazi and Devon, a lavender and black tea in front of them. Their tablet was in the center of the table, a digital workspace for their project.

“So which demon, or demons, are we summoning for an interview?” Devon said, writing the title _Interview Dilemma_ at the top of the tablet.

“Well, we could probably talk to Alcor, since he’s generally chill right now,” Sazi said. “Sources say that you have, like, a fifty-fifty chance of actually getting anything, and then a seventy five-twenty five chance of getting a lecture about summoning demons for schoolwork, though.”

“I can try Alcor,” Silver said. “I could probably ask Sam to help...” They trailed off as they remembered that Sam was still mad at them over the group project thing. “...or I can... figure it out myself.”

It didn’t matter much, they had already talked to him the night before, but that would be weird to tell Sazi and Devon here. Besides, it wasn’t exactly their call to make.

“Why would Sam not help?” Sazi asked, sipping her chai latte.

“She’s... she’s mad that I didn’t group with her, and I’m trying to talk to her about it, but she’s not talking to me because I asked her not to baby me and that was the wrong wording, apparently.” Their foot tapped the floor, _tap tap tap tap._

“Oh. Well, you wanted more space, right?” Devon added, putting down the stylus.

“Yeah, but I didn’t... want her to think I didn’t want to be _around_ her anymore, either. I... I don’t know, I want to talk to her about it but... I don’t know.”

“Hey, we’ve got two weeks and we have a research plan. We can figure out interviews later. Do you want any help?”

Silver ran their thumb along the rim of their mug. On the one hand, scripting help would be nice, but... the whole reason they were fighting with Sam was because they wanted more independence. They were an adult, right? They should be able to figure it out themselves now, right?

“Um...” They drank from the mug, tapping against the mug. “I... I know what I want to say to her, I just... don’t know how to approach her about it.”

“Alright, do you want some help figuring it out?”

“I... I don’t know. I kind of... want to try and do it myself first.”

Sazi smiled. “That’s chill, Silver. If you want any help though, you know where to find me.”

Silver nodded. “Yeah. Thanks, Sazi.”

“Let’s get to this research project, then!”

* * *

Sam was in the dorm room. Silver was in class, and Dipper was at a summons. She were at their desk, laptop opened.

She had a page open on werewolves, and it would be really easy to pass it off as research if they were questioned on it. That was really, really unlikely, but it was still a possibility that she couldn’t dismiss. Especially since it was one of seven or eight pages on turning.

She wasn’t sure what she should think about it. Most people had turned by choice, and it was really rare to be turned without consent. It still happened, though. It happened, and it was somewhere between a two percent to an eight percent chance, and she wasn’t sure how to feel.

The door opened, and Silver came in. Sam shut the laptop.

“Hi, Silver.”

Silver looked over.

“Uh... hi, Sam, are you... okay?”

“I mean, still shaken up from last night but that’s understandable.”

“Right. Um... I... wanted to talk about some of that.”

“Had an issue with what Dipper called a rogue werewolf. I’m fine now, though.” She should be. She sure hoped she was.

“Oh. Uh... Sam?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we... can we talk about the project thing...?”

“I’m... a little busy. Can it wait?”

Silver rubbed their arms. “I... guess. When-”

“Cool. See you tonight, then.”

Sam got up and took their laptop and left the room.


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam is frustrating everyone even more than before, and her family isn't helping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No specific warnings here, I don't think.
> 
> (Have a second chapter today because I felt like it and really like this one)

Sam sat down at the breakfast table in the dining hall with Dipper and Silver, whose conversation came to a halt. She barely noticed that, though, more focused on keeping her eyes open. She had been up for most of the night doing research on werewolf turning, and had only realized she might have needed sleep at six in the morning. By then, though, the sun was starting to come up, so she just decided to run off of caffeine for the day.

She hadn’t learned much useful information, either. Most of the sites she found just repeated the two-to-eight percent chance of being accidentally turned, and she couldn’t find much more on that. Turns out, most people who were turned did so voluntarily, or the decision had to be intentional on the part of the werewolf. She didn’t think the werewolf that had attacked her intended to  _ turn _ her, though.

She tried to find information on how to tell if you had been turned, but that wasn’t much help to her. That was because most people knew already, usually because it was an intentional decision.

Then, there were the pro-nat protests. Sam didn’t want to think too much about those.

“Woah, Sam, are you alright?”

Sam blinked, staring at Silver, her brain trying to catch up to the rest of the world.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Had some trouble sleeping.”

She lifted her coffee mug up and drank from it, almost spilling it as she realized it was too hot. She set it down a little harder than she intended, feeling the back of her throat stinging. Ouch.

“Yeah, you don’t look like you slept at  _ all. _ ” Dipper commented. Sam waved it off.

“It’s one night. I’ll survive.”

“One night turns into two, and then four, and then you’re running on caffeine and willpower for three weeks,” Silver said. “Remember Junior year?”

“Yeah, I remember Junior year. It’ll be fine, Silver, I’ll sleep.”

“That’s what I said, and then I was up until five in the morning going down a research rabbit-hole fueled by paranoia for a week.”

“I promise I’ll sleep.”

“You better.”

“I will tonight. I have a class in an hour so I can’t now, but I will tonight.”

Silver sighed. “Alright. Thank you.”

Dipper had been watching her this whole time. As the thought crossed her mind, he stopped, and she frowned. What was he able to do as a result of owning her soul, anyway? Could he just do whatever he wanted in her head? Could he do whatever he wanted with her,  _ period? _

“Besides, last night was an accident. I got carried away because my group for preternatural studies is useless.”

Silver winced. Sam tried her coffee again, happy to find it wasn’t too hot to drink now.

The table lapsed into silence, save the sounds of the three of them eating. Sam’s phone dinged in her pocket, and she pulled it out to check it.

Ah, fuck.

**_Mom (8:17 am):_ ** _ Hi, sweetheart! How is college going? We missed you at Thanksgiving last month! _

The message stared at Sam accusingly, and she stared back for a moment before putting the phone away.

She would deal with it later, if ever. Her mom would expect an answer. Maybe she should get a new number and not give it out to her parents. She couldn’t make Thanksgiving because of school. Maybe just not respond, she got a new number already.

Dipper was watching her again. She pretended she didn’t notice.

Time passed, and Sam got up to put away her dishes twenty minutes before she absolutely had to leave. Dipper followed, and the whole way outside, Sam could feel his eyes on the back of her neck.

Her phone weighed in her pocket.

“Sam.”

“Mhm?” She looked to him, more awake now that she had caffeine in her system.

“What’s going on?”

Sam looked at him blankly.

“You’re going to have to elaborate on that.”

“Are you still focused on the turn rate?”

Sam tried for an unconcerned look.

“No. I thought we covered that yesterday.”

“Sam.”

“It’s not worrying me. I’m just stressed about the group-”

“Sam, I can feel you obsessing over it. I-” he sighed. “I’m not invading your privacy because people tell me that it’s rude-”

“Because it is. I get that that’s hard for you, but it is.”

“I have been  _ trying _ , Sam, and I will continue to try, but if you won’t  _ tell _ me or tell Silver what’s wrong-”

“Do not. Do not go into my head or whatever the hell you’re suggesting. I’m fine. I have everything under control. And you still need to explain to me how-”

“I will, Sam, but I need to know that you’re-”

“I’ve been able to handle it for eighteen years, Dipper. I’ve been able to take care of it myself for eighteen years, and like you said, it’s not a big enough turn rate to worry about, so I’m not worrying about it.”

The two fell into a tense silence as they stood in the courtyard.

“Let’s just go to class and get this semester over with.”

Sam walked off towards the building her class was in. Dipper’s eyes didn’t leave her until she went through the door.

Even then, she still felt like she was being watched.

* * *

Dipper was trying. He really was. He didn’t want to risk breaking Sam’s trust more than he already had, but there was something bothering her. He was pretty sure it had to do with the werewolf incident the other night, too. She wouldn’t talk to him about it, though.

Everything in him screamed for him to just check. It wouldn’t take ten minutes, she probably wouldn’t even notice, and then he’d know what the problem was. He could  _ help _ her deal with whatever was bothering her.

She had asked him not to, though. If he invaded her thoughts immediately after she told him no, that wouldn’t be good. That would be a breach of trust. Sure, it had been a while since he had been around people, but he had been around Sam and Silver long enough to value their trust. He wouldn’t take advantage of it, even though his entire being told him she wouldn’t notice.

Just a peek.

No, that would be bad. Just talk to her, like a person.

Meanwhile, he had his own class he had to be in to keep up appearances.

He turned and walked in the other direction.

* * *

“Miss Himms?”

Sam and Dipper had gone, first thing when they walked into their preternatural studies class, to their professor. Since Dipper wasn’t technically in a group, even if he had been helping Sam out, they still needed to find out how that situation was going to be handled.

Himms looked up from her computer at the pair of them.

“Tyrone missed group assignments on Monday,” Sam explained. Himms nodded.

“That’s right, I remember. Mr. Birch, I’ve put you in a group with Ms. Gene and Mr. Nills.” She smiled, and Sam saw Dipper’s expression shift to annoyed for a moment, before a polite smile crossed his face.

“Alright. I appreciate the foresight, miss Himms.”

“In that case, Ms. Reese, did you have another question about the project?”

“Could I switch groups?”

The question was out of her mouth before she could stop it. An apologetic expression came onto Himms’s face.

“I’m so sorry, Ms. Reese. We don’t have enough people in the class to really... justify switching groups, especially since you got the opportunity to pick your own groups on Monday. Mr. Birch is an exception, since he was absent, but swapping groups would make things unfair for your group, and give another group an unfair-”

“What if Tyrone and I swapped groups? It’s only Wednesday-”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Reese, I wish I could help you, but in an environment where groups are self-selected, it wouldn’t be fair. I’d have to let everyone switch groups at that point.”

Sam was quiet.

“If you need help with your project, you can always come see me during office hours.”

“It’s alright. Thank you for your time, Miss Himms.”

Sam walked to her group without another word to either Himms or Dipper.

* * *

“We need to talk, Sam.”

It was late, sometime close to one in the morning. Specifically, it was 12:47AM, and Sam was sitting with her laptop in a quiet study room in the basement of the dorm building when Dipper finally got back from a summons.

She slammed the laptop closed, and Dipper frowned, crossing his arms.

“I was just finishing up,” Sam said. Dipper stared at her aura - sharp pinks and yellows and reds. So that was a lie, and he wasn’t going to get her to tell him what she was actually doing down here.

“Sure. Go to bed, Sam.”

“I am.”

“It’s past midnight.”

“I know, Dipper. I’m going to bed.”

“Either this is workaholism, which I have never seen from you and seen plenty of from Silver, or you’re still obsessing over the werewolf-”

“I’m not obsessing over the  _ damn _ werewolf thing still, Dipper. I’m just carrying a research-based group project, and I’m going to bed now. Okay?”

There was a note of hostility to her voice, and Dipper wanted to shake her until she admitted she needed help. Group projects had groups for a  _ reason. _ You weren’t supposed to do all the work yourself. Even if groups were infuriating to work with.

Aside from that, there were still spikes of bright, lying colors in her aura, which worried Dipper more than flat-out workaholism would have.

“Let me help you, then! Or Silver, who’s been trying to talk to you since Monday-”

“They’ve made their point, you have your own group project, and I’ve done this before.”

“At least clear up whatever’s going on with you and Silver. I have no idea what your problem is, because you won’t tell me, but the lack of communication is stressing  _ them _ out.”

“Will you get off my back if I talk to Silver, then?”

“Sure. I’ll get off your back about this, but you need to talk to Silver -  _ actually _ talk to them. Sound like a deal?”

Sam paused.

“Off the record,” Dipper clarified. He ignored the sharp, disappointed ache in his chest. Sam nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Thank you, Sam.”

Sam nodded, picking up the laptop. “I’ll see you in the morning, then.”

* * *

Sam didn’t get to sleep immediately, staring at her phone’s lock screen. The background was hidden by new text messages from throughout the day, and the time - 3:03 am - seemed to burn into her eyes. She needed to sleep, but...

**_Mom (10:30 am_ ** _ ): Hello, darling! Get back to me as soon as you can. I miss talking to you. _

**_Mom (12:00 pm)_ ** _ : Sam, baby, please don’t avoid me. I know you moved but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss you. _

**_Mom (2:15 pm)_ ** _ : Samantha, please text me back. I want to talk to you. _

**_Mom (4:03 pm)_ ** _ : If you don’t get back to me by the weekend, I may just have to visit, sweetie. It’s been too long since we’ve talked. _

_ 4 missed calls from  _ **_Mom._ **

Dammit.

Sam had forgotten about her mom.

She’d take care of it tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all we're pretty much halfway through!  
> I hope this has been enjoyable thus far!


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam has a long-coming talk with Silver.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for:  
> \- Suggested/Implied Emotional/Verbal Abuse  
> Enjoy!

Sam pushed open the door to the dorm room some time after dinner the next night to find Silver typing away, their tablet propped up by its stand. She took a deep breath.  _ Better now than never. Besides, I told Dipper I would. _

“Silver?”

Silver paused their typing and turned to look at Sam.

“Yeah?”

“I uh...” she sighed. “I wanted to talk about the group thing.”

Silver’s expression was blank. “Um... okay, we can talk about the group thing now. Did you want me to start, or...”

“No, no, I can... I can start.” Where to start, though? “I... I guess I just... was hurt you didn’t tell me you wanted to group with someone else.”

“I mean, I wasn’t even thinking of the group project coming up until it was announced in class. I... guess I forgot. I’m not great with this stuff.”

“The emotions part, the communication part, or the work part?”

“Kind of all of it?” Silver smiled, laughing faintly. “I mean, the communication part is kind of the big one. That’s what autism  _ is, _ really - communication failure. My brain doesn’t exactly understand the social rules and the like unless it’s pointed out to me. I don’t just... pick it up like you do.”

“I don’t pick much of it up either-”

“No, it’s...” they sighed. “Your problem was your parents. You still… pick up social information, you just have trouble using it. Mine is the way my brain works. It literally doesn’t process it without it being explicit.”

Sam was quiet. That made sense, but it still was a little hard for her to wrap her head around.

“I can learn these things but it takes... I need to have it explained, even if it’s just, like, over the internet.”

“So... I mean, what about the work part of it? Since you asked me for help and all...”

That was when Sam saw Silver pause, thinking.

“I’m... I know. I screwed up, and that’s why I came to apologize, and then I decided to leave it be for a bit to see if things calmed down, but...” They sighed. “I need to figure out how to do these things on my own, at some point. I mean, it’s not like I can live with you or with my moms forever.”

“Why not?”

“Because that’s not the normal-”

“Silver, fuck society. If you feel more comfortable asking for help, do that. If you don’t, that’s fine too. I just...” Sam sighed. “I thought you were abandoning me, and I lashed out. That was on me.”

The room lapsed into quiet, and Sam could hear the beginnings of rain outside the window.

“I... I’m sorry too. I should have told you right then, but I didn’t.”

“You were keyed up to talk about demons. I get it.” Sam smiled. “Are we good?”

Silver smiled back. “Yeah. we’re good.” They grinned. “And, hey, you’re right. My moms probably woulda said the same thing, too.”

“About what?”

“About moving out. I just... I guess I wanted to be independent by the societal standard. I still do, really. It’s... it’s weird and stupid and I know it doesn’t  _ matter _ really but... it’s still something.”

“Silver. Silver, buddy, I’m Mizar, Alcor hangs out here almost  _ all the time _ , and you’re studying to be a demonologist. Neither of us are going to fit the societal standard for ‘normal’,  _ ever _ . I mean, just look at me! Moved all the way across the country just to get away from my dumb, influential socially-traditional parents. They suck. Just run with it, dude.”

Silver smiled at that. “Thanks, Sam. And hey, whatever’s bothering you... you can talk to me at any time, you know that, right? I won’t judge.”

_ You would, though. _ “Yeah. I might. Thanks for the offer, Sil.”

“Of course, Sam.” They smiled.

Sam’s phone dinged. She pulled it out and frowned.

**Mom (8:14 pm):** Hey, sweetheart! Just wanted to check in. Call me when you can! (I know you’re getting this, baby girl.)

Damn.

“I... I gotta take care of this, real quick.” She smiled, a little awkwardly.

“Alright. I’m probably going to get back to work, so...”

“Yep. I’ll see you later, then.”

Sam walked out of the building, standing under a slight overhang just outside. The streetlamp barely reached her, and she pulled out her phone, taking a deep breath.

How did her mom know she was getting these, anyway? It wasn’t like they could track her-

_ Oh, fuck. _

She needed a new phone as soon as she could. She wasn’t getting it from her parent’s company, either. Fuck. She took another deep breath and opened the phone, going to her mom’s messages.

**Sam (8:18 pm):** hi mom.

Not a moment after she had sent the message, her phone lit up with an incoming call.

She had to take this, didn’t she? She didn’t have a way to avoid taking this damn call. Fuck everything. She took a steadying breath and answered the phone.

“Sweetie! How are you?”

Her mom’s voice blared through the phone and hit Sam with memories of fake smiles and formal dinners.

“I’m fine, mom.” Her voice was neutral, and she swallowed. “How are you?”

She didn’t really care. It was formality, and she wanted to hang up right this instant.

“Oh, don’t worry about me! I want to know what you’ve been up to! Any nice new friends? A boyfriend, maybe?”

And she was going right back to this, wasn’t she?

“I have a couple friends.”

“No boyfriend yet?”

“No.”

“Oh, baby, you should really-”

“Look, mom, I have tests to study for. What do you want?”

It came out sharper than she had intended. The following silence was piercing.

“Samantha-”

“Sam.”

“Samantha Elizabeth Reese.”

She was across the country. She was across the country. She couldn’t get here. Sam swallowed again, mouth dry.

“Yeah, mom?”

“Do not speak to me in that tone.”

“Yes, ma’am.” It was instinctual, and she regretted it as soon as the words came out of her mouth. Dammit.

“Good. Now, your father and I were wondering what your Christmas plans were?”

Oh, so this was a trap to get her to go back to New Jersey for the holidays, huh?

“I was going to stay in with my friends and watch bad movies.” She wouldn’t mention that Silver was Jewish, and Sam didn’t want to celebrate Christmas, anyway, so they were celebrating Hanukkah instead.

“You should come out and visit us, if you’re not doing anything important.”

Sam wanted to scream. She wanted to yell. She wanted to tell her mother that spending time with Dipper and Sam was  _ far _ more important than any business dinner they could set up over the holidays. She wanted to tell her mom that she was celebrating a different holiday altogether. She wanted to tell her mom that she definitely wasn’t going to celebrate Christmas in the traditional, Christian style. She wanted to tell her mom to fuck off. Scream it, scream  _ all _ of it, and hang up.

She didn’t do any of that.

“That’s a bit of an expensive-”

“Oh, darling, we’d pay for it. Don’t you have to leave the dorms for winter break, anyway?”

Fuck.

“I’ll... I’ll think about it, mom.” That wasn’t a yes.

It wasn’t a no, either.

“Good girl. I’ll talk to you this weekend, then!”

Sam could feel her eye twitching.

“Yep. Goodnight, mom.”

“Kisses! I love you, Samantha dear!”

Before Sam could correct her mom, she hung up.

She stared at her phone screen for a minute. Two.

Then, she screamed, frustration and anger and hurt mingling together into one sound.

She hurled her phone to the ground, watching it shatter under the light of the streetlamp, sparking in the rain.

She slid down the outside wall, face in her hands, shaking. Her parents were still  _ getting _ to her! This wasn’t fair! It wasn’t right! They shouldn’t be able to manipulate her from the opposite coast! Across the  _ damn _ country!

She felt hot tears against her hands, and she sat there, barely shielded from the rain, sobbing.

God, she hoped she hadn’t turned.


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam can't sleep. She and Dipper talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No specific warnings, I think. Tell me if that's wrong and I'll fix it!
> 
> Enjoy!

Sam didn’t remember walking back up to the dorm. She didn’t remember sitting down at her desk to work, either. She  _ definitely _ didn’t remember putting the wreckage of her phone in a bowl of rice, or why she’d have done that. It wasn’t as if her phone were fixable outside of magic, anyway. It had snapped when she had tossed it at the sidewalk and was more a mangled piece of metal and electronics than anything that could be called a phone.

She glanced out the window. It was still dark out, which meant it was really late or really early. She turned her laptop back on and squinted as her eyes tried to readjust to the light. The clock in the bottom corner told her it was just past four in the morning.

Great. So she was running on three hours of sleep and anger.

She stretched in her chair, feeling sore pain shoot up her back and neck. Dammit.

She should go to bed.

She had told Silver she’d sleep. She’d told Dipper she’d sleep.

She shut the laptop and stumbled over to her bed, all but falling on top of the covers. She groaned, realizing she was still in her day clothes, but didn’t have the energy to change them.

She’d take care of it in the morning.

She at least kicked off her shoes, though. Her socks went with them, and she lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Light from the moon shone through the window, hitting the end of Sam’s bed. She glared at the patch of dull, almost blue light, before turning over onto her stomach.

There was an uneasy feeling at the back of her neck, as if she were being watched.

She probably was, all things considered.

“Dip, ‘f that’s you just come talk to me,” Sam muttered, only half-aware she was speaking in the first place.

The feeling didn’t go away. She didn’t feel another person behind her, either, so she rolled back onto her back and stared at the spot she was pretty sure Dipper would appear in.

He never did.

She needed to talk to him, anyways. The moon kept shining through the window. The rain had stopped at some point, Sam noted dully. She frowned.

She wasn’t getting back to sleep. She was too unsettled, and she didn’t even know why.

She swung out of bed and, not bothering with shoes, grabbed her keys, a deal-candy bag, and one of Silver’s books on Alcor.

She showed the book to empty air, space she was almost sure Dipper was in. She couldn’t be sure, though. She still felt like she was being watched.

“Last chance before I do and make you show up,” she said to air, and she saw Silver stir.

No demons appeared in the air, so she nodded to herself.

She made her way down to the basement study rooms and opened the door to the one with an honest-to-god chalkboard (who still used those? Sam had no idea. She was pretty sure it was the demonology students’ excuse to keep chalk in the building, though).

She flipped on the light and dropped the book on the table, flipping to the page with Dipper’s summoning circle. She opened the floor-to-ceiling cabinet in the corner and searched through it until she found the chalk, tossing it onto the table with the book.

It took her another ten or so minutes to push the table against one of the walls and copy down the circle onto the floor. She took the pocket knife hanging off her key ring and used it to poke her finger, watching blood bead up from the tiny cut. She let a drop or two fall onto the circle, then wrapped her hoodie fabric around her finger to stop the bleeding.

She had done this before, once or twice. Mostly, when Dipper was showing her how she should summon him in an emergency. This wasn’t exactly an emergency, but she did want to know how he had her soul. That was pretty important, and if she were having serious conversations with people tonight, anyway, she might as well find out now.

Secondly, of course, she couldn’t sleep. While she had experienced insomnia before, this was... different. It was almost as though there were a kind of pressure, an ache through her whole being. That wasn’t how her insomnia usually worked.

She wasn’t going to mention her parents, though. That one really was her own problem to bear.

“C’mon, Dipper, we gotta talk.”

The room was quiet for a moment, then Dipper showed up inside the circle. There wasn’t any of the pizzazz that he put into most of the summons Sam had seen, and she felt the air around her get a bit heavier. So he was sulking, then.

“It’s four in the morning, Sam.”

“Yeah, and I can’t sleep, and you wouldn’t answer me, so here we are.”

“Alright. What did you want to talk about, then?”

“My soul.”

Dipper crossed his arms. “Alright, you’re... I’m guessing you mean, why do I have your soul?”

“Yeah, something like that. Staying here to tell that story for the candy in the bag?” Sam held up the bag she had brought down from the room. Dipper was quiet for a moment, then sighed.

“Yeah, that’s fair. I wouldn’t need the deal if I didn’t have people constantly trying to summon me.”

They shook hands, and Sam shook out the demon-magic tingles running up her arm. She pulled one of the chairs from the table up and sat down. Dipper sat back in the air.

“So you know how the first Mizar was Mabel, right?”

“Yeah, I remember that.”

“Well, she and I would go cult-bashing pretty regularly. She was the one who made cultbasher, actually. It was kind of a major thing that we did. There was... a time where a summons went poorly, and Mabel was there.”

Sam listened quietly, the light above flickering ever-so-slightly.

“She got... she got really hurt, and I panicked. I couldn’t heal her without a deal, and if I didn’t she’d die, and the price was...”

“Her soul.”  _ Sam’s _ soul, by extension, then. The soul of every Mizar from then until forever.

“Yeah. She... she didn’t even think that much of it. She’d grown up with me. She didn’t know me as ‘Alcor the Dreambender’, the demon. She knew me as ‘Dipper’, the kid who didn’t wash his clothes and stayed up late at night solving mysteries. So she gave it to me.”

Sam was quiet, for a bit. Dipper didn’t say anything else, either. She sighed.

“She must have trusted you more than anyone else on the planet to do that.”

“She... she did. If... If I could give your soul back I would, but... magically I don’t think I can. I’m sorry, Sam...”

“I...” Sam had been around Dipper and Silver long enough to know that there was something of a give-and-take when it came to deals. At least, there was for Dipper, who tried to keep things fair, even if it was unusual behavior for a demon. She got the feeling the price for her soul would be something she couldn’t exactly pay.

She could accept that he had her soul, of course. She didn’t have to like it, but she could accept it. She sighed.

“Alright. That’s... I’m still not happy. I... I kind of would have preferred if you had told me earlier, at least.”

“Right. It... I wasn’t trying to  _ hide _ it from you, per se, but I get it.”

“As... so long as we both know that it wasn’t the best way to give me that particular bit of information.”

Dipper snickered. “Yeah, that was pretty horrible timing, wasn’t it?”

“Right? Oh, by the way, I know you’re trying to process being attacked and also I happen to own your soul.”

“That sounds... really bad, in hindsight. I mean, I know hindsight is twenty-twenty, but my foresight is usually better than that.”

“Not really. I mean, for being a semi-omniscient being you’ve still got some pretty bad foresight.”

“Hey, that’s not fair, Sam.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No, it’s definitely not. Not fair to me, anyway.”

“That’s fine, then.”

“It’s still, like, four in the morning. You should go back to bed.”

“I can try. I don’t… really have a whole lot going on tomorrow, so it should be okay that I don’t have an alarm…”

“What happened to your alarm?”

“I... my phone broke. Dropped it.” She did a little more than just drop it, but technically, that was still true. “I need to go into town to get it fixed or something.”

“Hey, why don’t we clean up here and then go upstairs? I can see what it’d cost to fix it for you. It can’t be that bad, right?”

“...Yeah, right.”

They took about a minute to clean up the room, with Dipper doing most of the work through magic (which wasn’t fair, by the way). Sam checked the room over for any obvious signs that she had been down here summoning a demon at four in the morning, before nodding.

“I’ll meet you up there, then.”

Sam nodded.

She walked back up to the dorm room in silence. A quick glance out the window revealed that it was still definitely dark out, which was reassuring. It meant that it was pretty unlikely for anyone else to be awake, moving around.

She still did her best to be quiet, though, because she had found out the hard way that this wasn’t always the case here.

She made it up to her room without incident, though, and opened the door to find Dipper sitting at her desk, holding the wreckage that had been her phone.

“So how hard, exactly, did you drop it?”

“I... may have thrown it. At the ground. In a rainstorm.”

Dipper stared at her, the gold in his eyes standing out more than usual in the dark room.

“Why did you throw your phone at the ground in the rain?”

“...Got frustrated with something. It’s- it’ll be fine, I can take care of it, but I can’t exactly use this to do it.”

“So, good news and bad news. Good news is, I can fix it. Bad news is, it’ll cost another whole bag, plus a little.”

“Dammit. Alright, give me a second.”

They’d have to go back into town soon to restock the deal bags, wouldn’t they? She dug out another bag and pilfered a few pieces of her own candy.

“this good?”

Dipper looked at it for a moment, and nodded.

“Yeah, that should do it.”

“Please don’t make the phone unusable.”

“I’m not going to screw you over. Strangers, yes. You, no.”

For the second time that night, Sam shook Dipper’s hand, and the blue light from the flames lit up the dark room for a moment. Silver, thankfully, didn’t wake up.

The candy disappeared from Sam’s hand, and Dipper handed Sam her phone.

“Good as new.”

“Thank you. I’m... going to try to sleep now.”

“Yeah. Do that. I’ll see you two in the morning, I have another summons I have to take care of right now.”

“Go take care of it, then.”

Dipper waved, and disappeared from the room.

Sam’s phone sat in her hand, and she set it down on the desk.

The moon was barely shining through the window, now, but it still gave Sam a headache.

She shut the blinds and tried to sleep.

She lay in bed for hours, until the sun was rising and early-morning light was filtering through the closed blinds.

She didn’t want to think about why it could be.


	9. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam still can't sleep. She gets another phone call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for:  
> \- Insomnia  
> \- Implied emotional abuse  
> \- Implied verbal abuse  
> Enjoy!

It was six-thirty-four at night on a Friday, and Sam was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Silver had been working, but Sam was aware of the glances they kept giving her.

Dipper had come through a couple of times, but kept having to leave because of summons. He hadn’t been in the room for something like ten minutes, at this point. Sam’s phone was going off on the stand next to her. She didn’t pick it up.

She was in pajamas, with her light off, trying to sleep. All day, she had been almost drifting off during class. She couldn’t focus, she had walked into a wall at least five different times, and had walked into the wrong class at one point. That had been awkward.

So, basically, she was utterly exhausted. But she had been lying here trying to fall asleep for half an hour, and hadn’t been able to. It was almost like she was  _ more _ awake, now that she was trying to sleep.

Dull light from the moon drifted through the room, the only other source of light being Silver’s tablet screen. Sam knew that the moon shouldn’t be that bright, especially when it wasn’t shining through the window. It felt almost like someone was shining a flashlight around the corner of the dorm building, and the light was leaking into the room.

Sam turned to face the wall, pulling the covers up over her head. She shut her eyes.

She wasn’t sure how long she lay like that until Dipper came by to check on her. 

“Sam?”

Sam pushed down the covers and only avoided screaming at Dipper from months of experience with him showing up wherever he wanted.

“Yep, that’s m’ name,” she said instead, words slurring together with sleep. Dipper frowned.

“How are you not passed out right now?”

“I’m trying to sleep, dude.”

“Yeah, Silver told me when I popped in a couple hours ago.”

“What time is it?”

“Uh... nine.”

Sam groaned.

“I just want to sleep, is that so much to ask?”

Why couldn’t she sleep?

_ Why couldn’t she sleep? _

It couldn’t have to do with the werewolf.

It couldn’t.

No.

She couldn’t believe that. She had to be okay. She didn’t know what would happen if she had turned.

She had to sleep.

“I mean... it’s not, no. Do you want help?”

“I... I don’t know. I don’t know. Not- not tonight. If... if I can’t sleep at all tonight we can try that tomorrow. I’m...”  _ tired scared frustrated _ exhausted.

“Okay. I- I have another summons, but good luck I guess-”

Dipper disappeared from the space above Sam’s bed. Sam blinked for a moment, before turning back over and attempting to get to sleep.

Somewhere around one in the morning, she gave up. She grabbed her phone and stared at the screen. Immediately, she regretted it.

**Mom (6:14 pm):** Hi, baby girl! Let’s talk again this weekend! Does noon tomorrow work?

**Mom (6:45 pm):** Sweetie, I know you don’t like to respond to my texts but I do need an answer.

**Mom (7:23 pm):** Well, it’s either tomorrow or Sunday. Your father wants to talk to you too!

**Mom (7:56 pm):** Maybe we could do video this time, too! I haven’t seen your face in so long!

**Mom (8:23 pm):** It would be nice to meet the roommate you insisted on having too!

Sam stared at the messages. She opened the phone, and didn’t go to open them. She went to Grumblr, instead, and just scrolled down her dash until she passed out somewhere near the seven-am mark, when the sky was starting to lighten outside the window.

She slept for maybe an hour, hour and a half before she was woken up by an incoming phone call. She stared at the screen, trying to read.

Celice. Celice, who was Celice- oh. Celice was the lady at the preternatural resource center who Sam had talked to. That had been, when, Monday?

She took the call.

“Hi, Sam!”

“Hey, Celice,” Sam’s voice was dry, and her mouth tasted like cardboard. She should get some water after this. “What’s up?”

“I couldn’t find too many people in town who would be available for an interview. I’m sorry, Sam, it’s just...”

“Privacy, yeah, I get it.” Interviews. Group project. Right, she should work on that today. If she could keep her eyes open, that is. “It’s alright. I can go on the internet.”

“Alright, if you’re sure. I could always hook you up with someone from a different center-”

“Celice, don’t- don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’re super busy right now, anyway.” Sam yawned. “It’s alright. At least I didn’t push it off until the last minute, right?” She laughed a little.

“If you’re sure.”

“Thanks for trying, though, Celice. It’s really appreciated.”

“Of course, Sam. You seem like a good kid.”

“Yeah. I might stop down by the resource center at some point, though. Talk to you then?”

“Of course! Have a good week, Sam!”

“You too.”

Celice hung up, and Sam stared at the phone screen. As she watched, a new message came up.

**Mom (8:58 am):** Hi, darling! Are we on for video at noon?

Sam stared.

Her mom would call her anyway, wouldn’t she. She sighed. She could get herself together and into a secluded spot before then. She had... three hours, roughly.

She opened the message and texted back a reply.

**Sam (9:00 am):** yeah. sounds good.

**Mom (9:00 am):** Use proper grammar, baby girl.

Sam winced at the reply.

Fuck her mom, honestly. She sighed.

**Sam (9:01 am):** Yes, mom.

She pushed herself out of bed and got ready for that conversation.

* * *

At noon, Sam was still in the dorm. Silver was at the Sweet Teas Cafe working on their project, and Dipper was out on a summons.

The screen lit up with a video call, and Sam took a deep breath before accepting it. The screen turned to a video feed of a middle-aged woman. Her eyes matched Sam’s, a light blue color, and her bleach-blonde hair had obviously been made to look messy on purpose.

“Hello, darling! How are you today?”

“I’m fine, mom.”

Sam glanced to the image of herself in the corner and winced. She looked like a  _ wreck, _ all things considered. Dipper was right - she looked like she hadn’t slept all week, and the dark beanie she had pulled out to cover up the fact she had dyed her hair only made her look more disheveled.

“Oh, sweetie, have you been sleeping alright? Not having nightmares about  _ demons _ or-”

“No, mom. Just finals.”

“Hmm. Well, have you thought about Christmas?”

Right. That horror show.

“I’ve been busy, mom. I’ll tell you if I can come by next week-”

“Sweetie, I love you, you know that.”

Sam had to fight to keep the passive-aggressive comment down.

“Yep.”

“So you must  _ know _ that it’s killing me to not have you here for Christmas!”

It wasn’t killing Sam, that’s for sure.

“I still have to think about it, mom. I haven’t gotten to talk to my roommate-”

“Your roommate! I wanted to meet her! Is she with you?”

Sam had the pronoun correction on her tongue before she realized it wouldn’t go over well with her mom. She swallowed it. She didn’t want to out Silver to her mom.

“Nope. Out working on a project.”

She couldn’t mispronoun them herself, though.

“That’s too bad. I so wanted to meet her!”

“Maybe next time, mom.” No, there would be no ‘next time’ with Silver here. She didn’t want her mom to mess with her friend’s self-worth, too.

“Of course. If you don’t plan on coming home over Christmas break, where will you be staying, sweetie?”

“My roommate and I were going to look for an apartment,” Sam lied. Then, she realized that it wouldn’t be a horrible idea. She should bring it up to Silver later.

“Ah. Maybe I can visit you there, then!”

No. No, no no no. No way was her mom allowed to visit her here. Fuck.

“That’s- maybe.” That wasn’t what she wanted to say. “I’ll... I’ll think about it.” No. Just tell her mom no. She was an adult. She could tell her mom she couldn’t come visit. She could do that.

She didn’t.

“Did you cut your hair, baby?”

“Uh...” Sam’s hand drifted up to the back of her neck. “Yeah.”

Her mom’s expression went sad. Liar.

“Oh, sweetie, but your hair was so pretty! It was so wavy, and you got that from your father, why didn’t you keep it?”

_ Because I hated it? Because it reminds me of being stuck at home with you? At least you don’t know I dyed it. _

“I dunno. Wanted to try something new.”

“Oh, I do hope you decide to grow it back out.”

That wasn’t going to happen.

“I have... I have work to do, so...” She needed to end this conversation before her mom could nitpick anything else about her physical appearance. It was worse than usual, yes. Just gave her more ammunition.

“Alright, sweetheart. Get back to me by Monday about Christmas, okay?”

“I... yeah, I’ll get back to you.” She wasn’t going to New Jersey for the holidays, that was for fucking sure. “Bye, mom.”

“Goodbye, Samantha! Kisses!”

Her mom hung up. Sam rested her head on the wall and shut her eyes.

Fuck her mom, honestly.

She hadn’t noticed she had passed out sitting against the wall until Dipper decided to wake her up five hours later, when Silver got back from their group project.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam's tired. It's Sunday night, the full moon. Nothing bad should happen, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhhh no warnings I don't think have fun enjoyyyyyy!

“You’re a mess, Sam.”

Sam looked up from her laptop in the dorm room to Dipper. He watched her rub her eyes, and frowned at the dark bags under them.

“Yeah, I know,” Sam replied. “Can’t sleep.”

“I noticed. You slept the whole afternoon.”

She sighed.

“I know. I couldn’t sleep last night, then.”

“Do you want me to help tonight?”

“What would that entail?”

“Just a regular deal. Sleep for at least eight hours tonight for a bag of candy.”

As usual, he ignored the voice in his head that told him to take Sam for everything she had. He wouldn’t ever listen to it, he hoped.

“Alright. Yeah. Gimme a sec, though.”

“What are you doing, anyway?”

“Paper.”

Dipper floated over the desk, looking at the screen upside-down.

“Sam, you wrote a title.”

“Yeah, I’m working on a paper-”

“How long have you been working on this paper?”

Sam was quiet. “...A while.”

“Go to bed.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let me just... go change.”

Dipper waited for Sam to come back. She picked out a bag from the larger tote bag that he wasn’t allowed to touch because it was for deals.

“So, to reiterate: one full, eight-hour night’s sleep in exchange for the candy in the bag.”

“Yep!” Dipper held out a hand, and Sam shook it. The candy disappeared from the bag, and she tossed it back into the tote.

He waited for her to get into bed, and then he let her fall asleep.

He had a summons, now. He gave Sam one last glance, before he disappeared to answer it.

* * *

“Sam, you look worse than you did last night.”

Sam looked to Dipper.

“Yeah, I  _ feel _ worse than I did last night.”

Which was weird, because, thanks to her deal with Dipper, she had actually gotten a full night’s sleep for the first time that week.

Something was going on. She had a hunch, and she really, really hoped she was wrong. She yawned, pulling on a hoodie. She glanced down and realized it was the one with her parents’ logo on it.

Oh, well. It didn’t really matter at this point. She just needed to go to the library to work. She wasn’t going to get anything done in the dorm.

“If Silver gets back from their meeting let them know I’m at the library.”

“What, you think I’m not going with you?”

“...Fair. Alright, yeah, I’ll just... let them know.”

It was close to noon, and Silver was out at Sweet Teas again to work on their project. She was pretty sure they just liked being at the cafe, though, all things considered. Sam had only been there a couple times, but she couldn’t blame them. Maybe after finals were over, she should stop by there with Silver sometime.

That would be nice.

She took out her phone and ignored the numerous text messages from her mom asking to talk on Monday about Christmas. She didn’t have the energy to deal with that now. Besides, Dipper was here, and she didn’t want him to get involved in that mess. She wasn’t sure what he’d do.

**Sam (11:57 am):** Hey, Sil. Ty and I are going to the library to work, so we won’t be at the dorm for a while.

Sam didn’t get a response immediately, but a few minutes later, Silver texted back a thumbs-up. Alright.

They walked to the library, not talking much. Sam’s head felt like it was full of cotton, and she kept almost dozing off while walking. Dipper was making sure she didn’t do exactly that.

They worked in silence, too, up until Dipper got a summons.

Sam kept working, ignoring the text messages coming in every now and again from her mom. Eventually, she silenced her phone, dropping it in her backpack. If someone had a problem, they’d have to take care of it themselves.

* * *

Silver couldn’t quite get over the irony of the fact that, on the list of demons their group had decided to “interview” for their project (supervised by an actual professor, of course) that they had landed on Alcor.

The whole time their group was interviewing him, they couldn’t quite get over the feeling of betrayal that they had already done this.

Thankfully for them, Alcor didn’t give the group different answers than he had given them when they had done it one-on-one. They hadn’t really been thinking about the fact that they couldn’t just say that they had talked to Alcor already when they had asked for the interview the first night they had the project.

They had tried to talk to a couple other demons, their names slipping Silver’s mind at the moment, but it hadn’t gone particularly well. Their group had decided to explain that fact on the poster.

It was kind of funny, because Silver had gotten the text from Sam while they were preparing to summon Alcor. They had to try very hard not to laugh at the irony of the text, too.

They’d apologize for tearing Alcor away from the library later.

Afterwards, the three of them had gone to the Sweet Teas Cafe for something of a wrap-up celebration on the research leg of the project. It had been Sazi’s idea, and Silver stuck around for half an hour before making up some stupid excuse about having to do work.

Mostly, they had to let their brain reset from the group project itself. They were happy that their group was so proactive, of course. It was just exhausting, and they were looking forward to a night in bed with some MeTube videos.

They had just settled down when Alcor popped into the dorm room.

“Have you seen Sam?”

Silver paused, staring at him for a second.

“What?”

“Sam. Have you-”

“Not tonight, no. I thought she was at the library with you?”

“I got stuck with a Circle summons and got back and she’s not there. I thought she’d come back here but if you haven’t seen her-”

“What do you mean, she wasn’t there?”

“She wasn’t at the library. Her stuff was but she wasn’t.”

“Maybe she just... y’know, went to the bathroom.”

“I hung out for a while. Didn’t show up.”

“She... she didn’t come back. Okay. Yeah, that’s... that’s kind of weird.”

Silver glanced to the time at the bottom of their laptop. Seven thirteen at night. Maybe she was just on her way back? But if that were the case, she wouldn’t have left her stuff.

“I can probably, definitely find her, but I don’t know if she’d-”

“Doesn’t matter, you’re freaking me out now, too. If you can find her, do it,  _ please. _ ”

“Right. Right. I- maybe you should stay-”

“I’m coming. She’s my friend.”

Alcor nodded.

“Al- alright. I... haven’t blipped with you yet, do you want to try that?”

“I...” Silver paused. From what Sam told them, it was basically teleportation, but... “Can we walk? This time.”

“Yeah. I’ll... she doesn’t seem to be in danger, I’d be able to feel it if she was, so that should be fine.”

He seemed to be talking to himself, mostly, so Silver didn’t respond. Alcor took a deep breath and looked to Silver.

“I... have an idea, I can find her. Let’s go, then?”

“Yeah.”

Silver took an actual flashlight with them, just in case.

* * *

Dipper was a little confused. Sam should be right around here. Which itself was strange, considering that they were in the middle of the woods outside of campus.

Silver walked behind him with a flashlight, and Dipper, even though he didn’t need it, found it reassuring. Still, there was something weird about this.

“Sam!”

His voice took over the spot of the woods they were in for a moment, before it got quiet again.

Almost too quiet, Dipper thought. He frowned.

Something was wrong.

“Alcor?”

That was Silver behind him, and he turned. Silver was backing towards him, away from...

Of course. It clicked, now, as his eyes landed on the too-large wolf, unnatural blue spot by the left eye popping out at him in the dark. Of course Sam had been having trouble sleeping. Of course they were out in the middle of the woods looking for her.

He had checked, and it was a two-percent chance, but it had been a two-percent chance that came through anyway.

“Silver, get behind me.”

He touched onto the ground, standing between Sam and Silver.

It was a full moon, Sam probably had no idea what was going on, and Silver could get seriously hurt by this. He could get hurt, he could bleed, but Sam couldn’t kill him.

Lucky for him, too, since that’s when Sam dove at him.


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Silver and Alcor find Sam. Shenanigans ensue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... don't know what warnings. This feels like a chapter that should have warnings. Um...  
> Transformation, I guess? I don't know  
> Enjoy the shenanigans

Silver watched as the enormous wolf they had seen earlier leaped at Alcor, a growl coming from its throat, vibrating through their own chest. They jumped back, hands over their ears their chest it was so  _ loud _ and they couldn’t hear themself think. It wasn’t loud like a siren, which hurt in the front of their head and their ears and their throat, but it was loud like too much base is loud, rumbling and shaky and painful in the back of their head and their chest and their stomach.

“Silver, back up,” they heard Alcor say, but it felt like it was far away, down a tunnel and echoing through their throat and the rumbling, shaking growl still moved through their chest and their legs and their arms-

They took a couple tentative steps backwards as the wolf’s face got to be less than an inch away from Alcor’s, and they were wondering why he didn’t just leave, get up and  _ go- _

“Hey, hey, relax,” he said, apparently talking to the wolf.

Wait, why would he be talking to the wolf?

The wolf growled a little louder, setting the hair on the back of Silver’s neck standing straight up. They weren’t even really aware that they were tapping the sides of their head, but it became more evident as they squeezed their eyes shut.

Alcor’s voice still flooded through their head, though.

“Cut that out. C’mon. Hey, yeah, look at me, no- Sam, Sam no-”

Sam?

Sam was where?

Sam was-

There was something wet against their face, and a rumbling against their chest and their legs and their head.

“Sam, hey, no, don’t-”

Silver froze in place, not opening their eyes, hearing snuffling and breathing and it was so loud so loud so  _ loud _ -

Then, something very warm and very wet against the side of their face.

They cracked one eye open, and the wolf - no, that was Sam, wasn’t it? There was the blue spot, where they dyed it normally, and Alcor would know better than them, anyway - was standing  _ so close so close _ and had just licked their face.

What.

They hummed quietly in response, words getting stuck with scratchy heavy claws in their throat.

“Sam, hey, back-”

Sam sat down in front of Silver, and  _ oh boy _ she was taller than them like this, big, fluffy tail sweeping the ground behind her.

So.

So this was a new development.

She looked at them with big, blue eyes and Silver stared back, hands at the side of their head, a constant, low humming buzzing through their throat coming from their chest.

Sam licked them again, their beanie falling onto the ground behind them. That would be a pain to clean up and-

“Sam, cut that out-”

A low growl from Sam towards Alcor, who stepped back with his hands up. Silver would have found it hilarious if they weren’t scared out of their mind and confused beyond belief at the same time.

“Alright, yep, no, go ahead. I won’t stop you.”

So Silver stood there and let their friend, who was apparently now a wolf taller than them, lick their face. There wasn’t much they were willing to try to do otherwise.

Occasionally, Alcor would try to intervene. Sam wouldn’t let him.

Eventually, Sam got tired of that, and decided to go over and investigate Alcor further, now that she had decided Silver was good.

Silver had started to calm down at some point, too, the repetitive motion something they could breathe to, the idea getting easier to accept after the initial shock.

Silver watched as Sam went and sniffed at Alcor, who kept glancing at Silver. Silver could feel themselves smiling, because of course this is what Sam would be like on a full moon as a werewolf.

Sam was a werewolf. That was... new, but it made sense, thinking back on the past week.

The earlier judgment of ‘threat’ was recalled, it looked like, as Sam gave Alcor a similar treatment. Silver almost laughed, because Alcor straightened and froze when she started, and he looked to them in confusion.

“It’s fine,” they said. “Just let her do it.”

So Silver watched Alcor the Dreambender, an extremely powerful and old demon, stand there, not moving, while a giant wolf licked the top of his head, knocking his top hat onto the ground as a result.

Silver wasn’t quite sure how that worked. They’d ask later, though, because they wanted to know how it worked.

Sam didn’t quite seem to get bored with Alcor, though. Silver had crouched down to pick their beanie back up from the ground, dusting it off, when they heard the  _ very _ undignified squeak from the demon. They looked up to see-

What exactly were they seeing?

Sam had lifted Alcor up from the ground, her mouth clamped around the back of his suit, and they caught the very tail-end of a panicked expression on Alcor’s face.

“Sam, Sam what are you-”

There was a soft growl, and Alcor shut up, looking to Silver with wide eyes. They could have laughed at that, except they had no idea what was going on, either.

“It’s probably fine,” they said, walking over. “Sam?”

Sam looked to Silver, before walking off into the woods, the startled demon in her mouth.

Silver, understandably, decided to follow. If nothing else, it would be good to know where she was going.

They ended up following Sam and Alcor around the woods for the better part of the night, before Sam decided on a good spot to settle down with the demon she had brought with her. Silver stopped, walking up to Sam. She looked at Silver.

“Sam, I think you should let him go.”

“Please?” Alcor added, voice cracking.

Sam didn’t give any kind of response to that. Silver wasn’t sure why they expected a response. Sam was an enormous wolf right now. She did, however, after a moment of pause, put Alcor on the ground, before curling up beside him.

Silver walked closer, careful. Sam watched them with large blue eyes, but didn’t growl at them or anything.

They sat down on the ground next to Alcor and lay against Sam.

Sam was... very, very soft. Silver wasn’t exactly sure what they had been expecting, but somehow, this didn’t surprise them. Sam lay her head down on the ground, curled around Alcor and Silver.

Silver hummed, staring up at the sky through the trees.

They’d just stay here with Sam tonight.

* * *

Sam woke up the next morning and everything hurt. Her mouth tasted like cardboard and fabric and pine needles.

She was also in the middle of the woods, which was... unusual, to say the least. Didn’t she usually sleep in a bed? Or, at the very least, didn’t she usually sleep indoors?

She turned and realized that Silver and Dipper were here, too.

Why were they out in the middle of the woods with her?

It didn’t make a lot of sense.

“Mmm… Silver?”

“Five more minutes.”

“Silver.”

“What?” Silver cracked open their eyes, looking up at Sam.

“Why are we in the woods?”

Silver didn’t respond for a second.

“Wolf.”

“What do you mean,  _ wolf- _ ”

“You were a wolf. We went to look for you and we ended up here because you decided to carry Alcor around like a puppy until you found a good enough spot to sleep.”

“I… I did  _ what _ ?”

“Carried me around like a puppy, apparently,” Dipper said, starting to wake up (did he actually need to wake up? Did he sleep?) and turning to look at Sam. 

Sam started to laugh. Then, the reality of what they were saying hit her.

Shit.

Shit, she had  _ turned, _ hadn’t she?

She didn’t notice the laughter turning to sobbing until she felt Silver wrap their arms around her. 

“Sam, hey, it’ll be fine.”

She didn’t know if it would.

“I’ll… be back. I need to use the restroom.”

She didn’t really, but it was a good excuse to go get herself back together. Silver nodded, and Sam got up and wandered a little further into the woods, out of sight.

Then, she broke down. She didn’t know what to do.

She didn’t go back to Silver and Dipper for a little bit.

Damn.

Dammit.

_ Dammit. _

What would  _ happen _ to her? What would her  _ mom _ do to her? Why should she care what her mom would do to her? Why?  _ Why? Why?! _

Why her?

Why did it always have to be her?

She should call Celice.

Celice would know what to do. She had to go get her stuff- where was it? She thought it might be at the library, but she’d have to ask Dipper or Silver, and she didn’t know if she could bear to face them right now.

Fuck.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after, Sam and Dipper go to talk to Celice at the Preternatural Resource Center.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god I'm sorry this took a week I was having difficulties and school happened anyway enjoy!

Sam didn’t go to class Monday. Neither did Dipper, but Sam doubted that Dipper was missing much, anyhow. He already knew all the material.

It had been Silver’s idea to go to the Preternatural Resource Center in person, actually. Sam had been ready to push through the day, severely sleep deprived or not. She could have just called Celice and not bothered with going in person, anyway. Still, she was here, despite her arguments against going.

Dipper was there with her, too. He had said he was there to make sure she didn’t duck out, but Sam got the feeling that wasn’t the whole story. Really, how he was hovering around her, mother-henning and worrying told her everything she needed to know. Sam would be willing to bet real, actual money that Dipper was just there because he was worried about her.

Especially since he kept getting that far-off look in his eyes Sam recognized as him pushing off a summons.

So, Sam had agreed to go to the preternatural resource center to talk to Celice in person that day. Silver had promised to take notes for her in the classes they shared, anyway. Most of what Sam was missing was time to work on projects and papers, but that wasn’t the important part of this. The important part was that she would have rather just called Celice, instead of going in person. That meant that she had to really acknowledge it, and she didn’t know if she was prepared for that.

She didn’t know how to feel, honestly. On the one hand, it was just another part of her life she had to deal with. Her parents would want nothing to do with her after this, which would be a relief. There were the practical issues, of course, but that wasn’t what was bothering her.

Her parents’ acceptance should never have been bothering her the way it did, anyway.

Why did she care so much?

She shouldn’t.

She shouldn’t care at all.

This was a good thing, then.

...Right?

“Sam.”

Sam shook out of her thoughts to look at Dipper.

“Yeah?”

“You’re going to cut your hand if you keep digging your nails into your palms like that.”

Sam looked down at her clenched fists. Her hands had been sitting in her lap flat-open a moment ago. She let them uncurl, wincing at the marks her nails had left in the skin, anyway. She hadn’t been paying attention.

“Anyway, Celice can talk to us now.”

Talk to  _ us. _

“You didn’t have to come with me,” Sam said as the pair of them stood up. She tried to ignore the way she felt like everyone was watching her. No one was watching her. No one here was judging her. People probably hadn’t even noticed. No one was going to tell her to sit back down or to walk straighter or anything.

Where had that come from?

“Sure, I didn’t  _ have _ to, but I wanted to. Besides, Silver’s worried, and I told them I’d do my best to make sure  _ you _ didn’t chicken out.”

“Right.”

She pushed open the door to Celice’s office, and Celice looked up from her computer at the sound.

Celice wasn’t someone Sam’s parents would have wanted her to be around. For starters, she worked at the preternatural resource center, which didn’t gain anyone points with Sam’s family. Maybe higher on their list of problems, though, was the fact that Celice was a vampire.

Sam, of course, didn’t care so much about that.

“Hey, Sam! You wanted to talk to me about something?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s... um.” Sam rubbed her arm, and Dipper followed her in, shutting the door. He sat down in a seat by the door.

“Why don’t you take a seat and tell me about it?” She nodded to Dipper. “Friend of yours?”

Sam looked to Dipper. “Yeah.” Yeah. She pulled a seat up towards Celice’s desk, putting her hands in her lap. Her leg was jittery, and was the air conditioning always that loud?

“Alright. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on, then?”

“Well... um. It’s... on the one hand, I don’t need an interview anymore,” Sam started, and facepalmed internally. That wasn’t a good way to start this conversation, was it?

“And on the other hand?”

“I’m... I’m a werewolf.”

“Alright.”

Sam blinked.

“That’s... that’s it?”

“Well, unless you were expecting something more grandiose, yeah.”

Sam stared. She hadn’t noticed she had started crying until the first tear hit the back of her hand. After that, she couldn’t stop, hiccuping sobs the only sound in the room for a bit, contested only by the air conditioning.

This was  _ nothing, _ why was she losing it?

“Oh, Sam... would you like a hug?”

Sam nodded, barely feeling herself move. Celice hugged her, and Sam squeezed her eyes shut, trying to stop the tears but they wouldn’t stop, why wouldn’t they stop why was she  _ losing it _ over this?

“Hey, it’s alright. Did you find out last night?”

Sam nodded.

“Alright. It’s a big change, but that’s what we’re here for, alright? That’s my job.”

This was Celice’s job.

Sam must seem  _ pathetic _ to her, then, huh? Celice had probably seen this lots of times. She was just another person to keep track of, now.

“Do you want me to send you some things to read over? You’ve got a break in a couple of weeks, if I remember.”

“Yeah... yeah, yeah, that would- that would be nice.”

Sam’s voice was quiet, having to work past a pressure in her throat.

“Alright. You live in the dorms, right?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re shutting down in a week. If you want, I could help you find something more permanent?”

“That... I don’t... I don’t want to take up all your time.”

“Sam, this is part of my job. My job is to help people learn about preternatural communities and to provide resources and help to preters who come talk to me. That’s what the resource center is  _ for _ , Sam. You’re not using up my time.”

Sam nodded to herself. “Right... right. Yeah.” She swallowed. “Can... can I talk to my roommate first... and- and maybe see what- what they want to do?”

She had been going to ask Silver about getting an apartment in town, anyway. Getting a little more help couldn’t hurt. Especially since they’d be looking for someplace which would be accommodating of the werewolf thing now.

“That’s perfectly fine. You can call me or come back here when you come to a decision, alright?”

Sam nodded.

“Thanks, Celice.”

“Of course, Sam.”

It was another ten minutes before Dipper and Sam left the Preternatural Resource Center. When they left, Sam had a flash drive in her pocket with articles to read when she got home.

She also felt a little lighter, a little more relaxed. If asked, she’d probably say that she was just happy to have resources. It probably had more to do with the reassurance that there wasn’t actually something wrong with her, though.

As the two of them reached Sam’s car, she felt her phone buzz in her pocket, and she felt her good mood evaporate, turning to a sour anxiety. She had told her mom she’d have an answer about the holidays today, hadn’t she?

She dug her phone out of her pocket and bit her lip.

**Mom (11:56 am):** Hi, sweetie! Let’s talk later, okay? Does four your time work?

Sam stared at the message for a moment, before sticking her phone back in her pocket.

Dipper was watching the space around her, eyes gone gold-on-black for a moment.

“What is it?” Sam asked, unlocking the car and sliding into the driver’s seat. Dipper blinked, his eyes going back to brown.

“Who texted you?”

“You first, dude.”

Dipper slid into the passenger seat.

“I was just looking at your aura.”

“My... okay, then.”

“Your turn, Sam.”

“It was... it was just my mom.” She tried for a smile, but got the feeling it came across more as a grimace. “It’s nothing. I’ll take care of it later.”

Dipper watched her for a moment.

“If you’re sure.”

The car ride back to campus was quiet, in large part because Dipper was back to fighting off summons.

* * *

“Hey, Silver?”

Sam was laying back on her bed, scrolling through the contents of the flash drive Celice had given her. Silver was at their desk, putting together the last pieces of their part of their project. They paused, turning to look at Sam.

“Yeah?”

“What were your plans over break?”

Silver was quiet for a moment.

“I... hadn’t really thought that through. I had been planning on staying here but the dorms close, don’t they?”

“Yeah. Uh... well, while Alcor and I were at the resource center earlier today, Celice offered to help me look for a place in town.”

“You should take her up on that, then.”

“I was, ah, wondering if... you would want to... um, stay roommates, but... in town?”

Silver was quiet for a second.

“So, find a place with you, with Celice’s help? Yeah, I wouldn’t have a problem with that. It could be fun, actually,” Silver smiled. “When did you want to go look?”

“Would... uh, would this weekend work? I could call Celice and see if something earlier would work too but since we have classes and all-”

“No, no Saturday would work for me.”

Sam smiled.

That was that taken care of, then. She should call Celice and let her know.

Her phone buzzed against the bed, and Sam picked it up, staring at the screen.

**Mom (3:41 pm):** I haven’t heard from you yet today, so I wanted to make sure you remembered to get back to me about our call. Does four your time still work?

If it would  _ still _ work? Sam had never said it worked at all.

She should just take care of it.

**Sam (3:42 pm):** Yes, that works.

She shut off the phone and sighed, sitting up. She had about twenty minutes to get herself into a state of mind where she could talk to her mom.

* * *

Sam stood outside the dorm building, her phone in her hand, watching the minutes tick away to four. It was pretty chilly out, courtesy of late fall in the pacific northwest.

3:59.

She would just tell her mom that she wasn’t going to New Jersey for the holidays. That would be it. She wasn’t going to New Jersey. She had a living arrangement set up. Her mom didn’t get to know more than that.

4:00.

The phone buzzed in her hand, her mom’s contact replacing the lock screen. Sam took a deep breath and answered it.

“Samantha, sweetie! How are you?”

It was Sam.

“Fine. You?”

She didn’t care.

“Oh, well, I’m doing lovely! It’s wonderful to talk to you, you know. You haven’t been talking to us and it’s got us worried about you!”

Don’t let her mom guilt-trip her.

“I’ve been busy.”

“I’m sure you have been! Any boyfriend yet?”

It hadn’t even been a week.

“No.”

“Lighten up, darling! Christmas is coming up and you know what that means!”

Family dinner and invasive questions.

“Yeah.”

“Are you planning on coming home for the break, sweetheart?”

She took a deep breath. She could do this. She could tell her mom no. She could tell her mom no. She was an adult.

“No, I’m planning on staying here.”

Her ears rang. She did it. She finally did it. She finally managed to do it. She leaned against the building behind her for support, head buzzing a little.

Her mom was silent.

“I... I see. Your father and I were  _ so _ looking forward to seeing you, Samantha.”

Her mom was doing this again. She didn’t want to see her parents. She wanted to cut off contact entirely.

“I’m sorry.”

It sounded hollow. It was hollow. She didn’t care.

“Hmm... oh, perhaps we could come visit you! After all, we missed you at Thanksgiving. It would be lovely to see your face, even if it’s...”

Not at the manor that they owned. Not in the proper environment. Not where they could easily corner Sam into doing what they wanted.

“We had a video call the other day.”

“Oh, but it’s not the  _ same. _ Besides, I’d love to meet your friends! Maybe even help you look for a good boyfriend?”

“No, mom.” She swallowed.

Her mom couldn’t do anything.

“Darling, you’re not seriously planning to keep this up, are you?”

What was  _ that _ supposed to mean?

“I mean, really, demons?”

Oh.

Oh, it was about this.

“It’s my education.”

“How  _ practical _ is demonology, anyway? Unless you were planning on using demons to better the company...”

...What?

“Mom, I have to go.”

She didn’t really. Her mom didn’t know that.

“We’ll talk about it over Christmas, then!”

“I’m still not going to Jersey for the holidays.”

“Oh, of course not. Silly me. Have a good week, baby girl!”

Sam hung up without saying goodbye.

“What was all that about?”

Sam jumped and nearly chucked the phone at Dipper.

“You gotta stop doing that.”

“Sorry? But seriously, you seem pissed.”

Sam sighed, shoving the phone in her pocket.

“Just my mom. She  _ really _ wants me to go to New Jersey for the holidays but I  _ really _ don’t want to see her.”

Ever.

“Sounds like a problem. I could probably do something about that, send some nightmares her way, convince her that she doesn’t want to see you, either. Wouldn’t even be that big of a deal.”

Sam smiled. “That’s... thanks for the offer, but... but I think I’ll pass this time. She has to learn to take refusal from me.”

She needed her mom to know she meant it when she said no.

“In other news, Silver and I were going to go apartment hunting on Saturday with Celice. Want to join us?”

Dipper smiled.

“Of course I would.”

Sam smiled back, sticking her hands in her pockets and walked up to the dorm with him.

Maybe everything really would work out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there are still unfinished things I swear I know what I'm doing  
> Anyway yeah I hope you enjoyed this ride ride's not over just yet but I hope it was enjoyable nonetheless


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrapping up loose ends, like that group project we all forgot about and apartment searching.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at that, we reached the end! For the people wondering if I'm done with Sam, the answer is a giant 'no'. I'm really just getting started with the hijinks now~  
> Enjoy!

Sam, Silver, and Dipper met up with Celice outside of the Preternatural Resource Center late on Saturday morning. The week had seemed to speed by, at least for Sam. A mixture of projects, two big papers, and studying for the demonology final had sucked up most, if not all, of her time. So, waking up at ten in the morning and realizing it was Saturday already was a bit of a shock.

She had driven down to Pineview with Silver, though Dipper had appeared in the backseat of the car halfway through the ride. Sam only avoided swerving off the road through months of practice with the demon showing up out of the blue at random. Still, it made her jump, and she still had to make a quick correction to avoid swerving off the road and into the forest.

He wasn’t obeying traffic laws, either, laying across the  _ entire _ backseat as if it were a bed.

He had gotten himself together before they entered Pineview proper, though. At least his shenanigans wouldn’t be getting Sam into any legal trouble.

Yet, anyways.

She had parked, and met up with Celice outside of the building. Silver joined Sam outside, though she noticed that Dipper opted to stay in the car for the time being.

“Sam, good to see you again!”

“You too, Celice. This is my roommate, Silver.”

Silver waved.

“It’s nice to meet you, Silver! I’ve heard a fair bit about you. Sam thinks of you pretty highly.”

Silver smiled a little.

“It’s nice to meet you, um...”

“Celice is fine. Is Tyrone joining us too?”

“Yeah. Were we driving around or...”

“If it’s alright with you, I thought we could walk. Pineview isn’t all that big and it’s a nice day, even if it’s a little chilly.”

Sam nodded.

“That... that makes sense.”

“Everything been going well since we last talked?”

Sam shrugged. “I’ve been busy. Feeling a little off, though. Not really sure why. Probably just stress.”

“Sleeping alright, now?”

“I mean, not really? Less out of insomnia and more out of a caffeine-fueled attempt to get everything done before next week.”

“Sam, you... you know caffeine isn’t...  _ great _ , right?”

“I mean, yeah, there’s the whole thing about how it messes with your brain and keeps you awake and all that-”

“No, I mean... oh, how do I say this. You know how chocolate is dangerous for dogs?”

“Um... yeah?”

“It’s dangerous because of the caffeine in it. It’s... it’s not quite as bad for you, since there’s more complicated processes going on, but...”

“...Are you trying to tell me that caffeine is poisonous to me now?”

“Just... mostly to a minor degree. It won’t kill you unless you ingest too much in a sitting but... yeah, that’s the gist of it.”

Sam stared at the ground. “That... that explains a lot of the past week, I’ll be honest. Neat.” Dipper had joined them by that point, so she began to walk down the street with Celice. She looked to Celice as a new thought occurred to her.

“Wait, does that mean I can’t have  _ anything _ on the bad-for-dogs list?”

“Not... exactly? I can send you links to a few good lists for werewolves, if you want.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’d be nice.”

Sam knew how to do research, sure. She wasn’t sure how to go about researching something for personal reasons like this, though. There wasn’t a great chance that she was going to run across that information on her own.

On the other hand, this gave her a lot of ammunition for the damn group project she was trying to corner her groupmates into having a meeting about sometime in the next week. Maybe it would work. Maybe it wouldn’t. Either way, Sam had plenty of research to just do the project herself and not bother with them, and only getting more sources as a result of her circumstances.

Honestly, she kind of wanted to laugh if she weren’t so worried about being pushed into a situation where she had to go back to New Jersey over the holidays if they couldn’t find someplace in town today.

“I was thinking we’d kind of start at one end of town and circle back here, if that’s alright with you three?”

“That works fine. I know I don’t have anything else going on today, but Tyrone might have to dip out at some point. He’s been getting a  _ lot _ of calls from his own group in one of our classes.”

That was the excuse they had all decided on if Dipper suddenly had a summons he couldn’t push off to the “answering machine,” anyways. They weren’t expecting to have too many problems, most of his summons this close to the holidays were weaker than the holiday summons he had been getting last week. When Sam had asked why, he had explained that earlier on, the people summoning him tended to be more professional, so had stronger summons. That level of strength wouldn’t be too likely to come back until the spring Circle holidays, and now, the summons he was getting were more from desperate people. There were still a few people running professional summons, though, and those still caught him.

Celice took the explanation they gave her at face-value, though, thankfully.

“Alright. Just let me know if you have to run, alright?”

Dipper nodded. “I’ll try my best to do that. Don’t want to accidentally worry anyone, after all.”

Said the demon masquerading as human to look for apartments.

“Sounds good. Alright, let’s get this show on the road!”

The actual apartment search was... rather uneventful, if Sam were being honest. Her parents had always talked about house shopping as this big event, but Sam realized that it probably had something to do with how much money that her parents had. For her, it was more a situation where she had to do it because otherwise, she wouldn’t have a place to live. For her parents, a new home wasn’t so big of a deal.

Unfortunately.

By the end of what Celice had started referring to as the Pineview scenic residential tour, Sam was pretty sure where she wanted to move to. There was a first-story apartment in the building next to the resource center which wasn’t too costly, and which had enough space for the two of them. Maybe even more, if they decided they wanted to share a sleeping space again. Sam was going to talk to Silver about it first, though.

She might talk about it with Dipper, but she was pretty sure Dipper didn’t care all that much. Aside, of course, from the one building which he had refused to let Sam go into because it ‘reeked of bad intentions,’ whatever that was supposed to mean.

The three of them had said their goodbyes to Celice before driving back into town to get lunch. Somewhere along the line, Dipper had gotten pulled off to a summons, so Sam and Silver had a quiet lunch at the Sweet Teas Cafe, which ended up being pretty close to the actual center of town. They agreed to talk about the apartment issue after they had both had a little time to think it over, and that was that.

After that, they drove back up to campus and quizzed each other on the material for the demonology final and worked on their own projects. Sam went to bed thinking about the various places they had visited that day with Celice.

When the pair of them talked about apartments over the next week, they ended up deciding on that first-story place right next to the resource center and not far from the grocery store, and had spent most of the day on Wednesday getting it sorted out.

* * *

“Here you go. Three interviews and five online surveys worth of data.”

Sam dropped the tablet on the table in the library Monday afternoon without regard for Eric and Sasha’s previous conversation. She had finally managed to get them into this meeting, and she was going to get right to the point. The less time she had to waste dealing with these two, the better, honestly.

There was a moment of silence as Eric and Sasha tried to switch gears after Sam’s sudden arrival.

“What, seriously? In a week? How’d you do that?”

“Grumblr and actually working. So, what have you two gotten done over the past week?”

“Well, I drafted a sketch of what the art portion could look like,” Sasha said, a little quietly. “I can’t do much with it until we have everything else put together, though.”

Sam looked at Eric.

“Well, you know, we still have a week, so I wasn’t really getting started until later...”

“Then it’s a good thing I did that, too. Sasha, you said you had a sketch? Let’s talk about that.”

Sasha nodded and quickly rustled around in her bag until she found her own tablet and pulled up a model of what Sam could only really describe as a statue.

“I was thinking we’d have the wolf statue, and then we could make a bunch of folding tabs with factoids from our research.” She swiped on the screen, and the sketch spun. “We could put citations on the back, I guess?”

“Okay,” Sam said, a little softer. She had honestly been expecting something slipshod based on the way that Sasha and Eric had been treating her and the project as a whole, but it wasn’t a bad idea, really. Not exactly Sam’s style, but it was a group effort, even if she didn’t particularly like it. “What about interviews?”

“The base wouldn’t be just a box like this. Um... hold on, we could...”

They threw ideas back and forth, while Eric looked really, really uncomfortable in the corner. Sam couldn’t help but feel a little happy about that. By the end of the meeting, Sam felt a little better about the project, honestly. Sasha wasn’t really a bad person, just with a different approach than Sam would have taken. The statue idea wasn’t all that bad, especially if they had an info-board behind it, for example.

Sam was going to pick up materials later today, and they’d start putting it together over the next week.

Maybe it wasn’t a lost cause, after all.

By the time finals week rolled around, the project they had put together was actually pretty professional looking. They had gotten a surprising amount of information onto the backboard for their model, and the wolf, made by Sasha using paper mache, wasn’t all that bad, either. Not as perfectly poised as the sketch had laid it out, but that was generally how things were.

The backboard, where they had put most of their information under flaps with gray pull-tabs, was painted a bluish-black with white dots to emulate the night sky. The tabs lifted to reveal info graphics,  _ did you know? _ bits, and quotes from the people Sam had interviewed. The wolf stood on a platform, painted green and brown, and was the lightest thing on the whole board, aside from the pull tabs.

They had even rigged up a little paper mache moon to hang above the wolf.

Sam did most of the presenting on the final day of class, since Sam had done the most work. The other people in the class walked by their project and stopped to listen to Sam talk about what they had learned over the course of the project.

At the end of it, too, the best part was that, in the write-up they turned in to the professor, Sam and Sasha had left comments on the balance of work.

Maybe the most gratifying thing for Sam was that Sasha apologized for being a jerk at the end of it, too.

Maybe it was the fact that Sazi, having heard all about the drama over groups from Silver, had invited Sam to a Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons session over the break as a way of getting to know Sam better, too.

Maybe it was just that she had survived her first semester of college without her parents even remotely near her, and part of her had been worrying that she wouldn’t be able to do it.

Maybe it was that they got a hundred on the assignment, except for Eric, who was docked points for not helping the group.

Maybe it was some weird combination of all three.

All Sam knew was that she was happy to be done, and that she had done the best she could, and that even having the last few weeks of the semester interrupted by werewolf drama hadn’t stopped her.

Now, of course, Sam and Silver were going to have to unpack at their new apartment, but that wasn’t going to be too ridiculously hard. Dipper had even procured furniture from the Mindscape for them.

No clue why he had it just sitting around, but that didn’t matter so much.

There was a kind of giddy joy in being done for the holidays as Silver tried to get in touch with her moms to get their recipes for the food they wanted to make over Hanukkah, and Sam realizing that she never had to see her parents again.

* * *

The road up to Pineview, Washington wasn’t the best kept, and the shiny car driving up it was a pretty considerable contrast to the woods on either side. This was a car that looked like it belonged in the city, and stuck out like a sore thumb in the current environment. 

Inside the car, the radio was on, Christmas carols playing through the speakers. The two people in the car didn’t look particularly like they belonged out here, either. 

“I didn’t think her school would be out in the wilderness.” A woman in the passenger seat muttered. 

“We’re not even all that close to the school, Alice.”

“Oh, I  _ know _ that, but we’re still close enough we should be able to see  _ some _ kind of civilization.”

“We’re coming up on the closest town.”

As he said it, they rounded a turn and the first buildings of Pineview came into sight. The woman scrunched up her nose.

“Who would willfully live in a dump like this?”

“It has its charms for a certain population, I suppose, dear.”

“Sure, sure, but our darling Samantha?”

The man didn’t say anything to that. Alice sighed.

“I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you, love.” 

“Oh, of course she will be! Holidays are for family, after all. Now, let’s find our baby girl.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, ahahah..... yeah  
> please don't hurt me


End file.
